The organization I chose for my final project is the National Alliance
on Mental Illness NH (NAMI NH). A client-facing role within this
organization is a
Family Peer Support Specialist
in the Children's
Department. The primary function of this role is to provide one-to-
one in-home/virtually or in-the-community support to
families/caregivers of children and/or adolescents with Serious
Emotional Disturbance (SED). A requirement to be considered for this
position is lived experience with a family member or a parent of a
child with SED that has experience with resources and recovery
empowerment. This 1:1 support includes advocacy for family needs
and applicable outside programs, promotion of NAMI programs and
support groups for families, and participation in wrap-around team
meetings/services. In addition to 1:1 services, this individual attends
community events, works collaboratively with stakeholders, and
maintains data/reports for grants (NAMI NH, n.d.).
The five phases of the helping process preparation, the client arrives,
exploring the problem, intervention strategies, and ending client
services, as identified in our reading, are applicable to this position
(Woodside & McClam, 2018). The preparation phase would be
researching the identified family case file. The client arrival phase,
which may look a little different, would be where the initial meeting
would take place. This is most likely an in-home meeting and
continues in-home throughout as the idea is to meet where the client
is at and what is easiest for them. The intervention strategy phase
would be identifying the needs and supporting the family in
applicable services. This could be introducing the family to resources
such as support groups and counseling/testing centers. Ending client
services would either be determined by the family's level of
need/success or if one party decides to terminate services for one
reason or another.
Reference
NAMI NH. (n.d.).
Family Peer Support Specialist - statewide
.
BambooHR. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from
https://naminh.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=86&source=aWQ9
Ng
Woodside, M. R., McClam, T. (2018). An Introduction to Human
Services, 9th Edition. [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]]. Retrieved
from vbk://9781337671262
