Magellan Health Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: MGLN), an industry leader in behavioral health care management, is supporting the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health on a groundbreaking initiative to enhance and standardize the knowledge, skills and competencies of parents who have experience with the children's behavioral health system so they can effectively provide support services to other families. Parent support providers-parents who have children with behavioral health challenges who help other families through similar situations-have been providing these services informally for decades. The wide array of functions performed by parent support providers is crucial, as studies show that children whose parents receive support have better outcomes in terms of residential status, law enforcement contact, academic performance and school attendance than those whose parents do not (see also Magellan Health Services, Inc.).
As the specialized knowledge, skills and abilities of parent support providers become more formally recognized in several states, Magellan's support of the National Federation lays the groundwork for a consistent national approach to training and certification for these roles.
'Advancing parent provider roles with national consistency is essential and supports Magellan's commitment to making sure children and their families have the services they need to be resilient and successful,' said Pat Hunt, Magellan's director of child and family resiliency services. 'Our support of the National Federation on this landmark initiative will set the bar for other states across the country to enable families, providers and the systems that support them to benefit from the unique expertise of parent support providers.'
Through its National Initiative for Parent Support Partners, the National Federation will use Magellan's resources to develop three briefs that outline best practices in supervising and coaching parent support providers, identifying the core competencies needed for their roles and assessing agency readiness for hiring. Magellan will advance the use of the briefs with families, providers and community agencies throughout its public sector contracts area and promote them nationally.
'Magellan's support will help us ready the field to employ highly qualified and well-prepared parents as support providers by setting standards of quality, expertise and performance in this type of service and establishing, promoting and protecting parent-to-parent peer support as a recognized profession,' said Frances Purdy, director of the National Parent Support Provider Initiative.
Keywords: Inc., Magellan Health Services, Magellan Health Services, Inc.
This article was prepared by Mental Health Weekly Digest editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2010, Mental Health Weekly Digest via NewsRx.com.
