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What Family Support Specialists Do: Examining Service Delivery

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Abstract

This study describes services provided by family support specialists (FSS), peer advocates in programs for children with serious psychiatric conditions, to delineate differences between recommended components of FSS services and services actually provided. An analysis of qualitative interview and observational data and quantitative survey data from 63 staff at 21 mental health programs in New York identified that FSS and other staff have generally similar ideas about FSS services, and that these perceptions of activities are generally congruent with what FSS actually did. Implications of findings are discussed in the context of developing competencies and quality indicators for FSS.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (1R01MH085969). Dr. Wisdom completed work for this study when she was at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The George Washington University, 2121 Eye St NW Suite 601, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

    Jennifer P. Wisdom

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, IDEAS Center, New York University Child Study Center, New York University School of Medicine, One Park Avenue, 7th Fl., New York, NY, 10016, USA

    R. Eric Lewandowski, Michele Pollock, Mary Acri, Priscilla Shorter, S. Serene Olin, Kelsey Armusewicz, Sarah Horwitz & Kimberly E. Hoagwood

  3. New York State Office of Mental Health, 44 Holland Ave, Albany, NY, USA

    Kimberly E. Hoagwood

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  1. Jennifer P. Wisdom
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  2. R. Eric Lewandowski
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  3. Michele Pollock
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  4. Mary Acri
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  9. Kimberly E. Hoagwood
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Correspondence to Jennifer P. Wisdom.

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Wisdom, J.P., Lewandowski, R.E., Pollock, M. et al. What Family Support Specialists Do: Examining Service Delivery. Adm Policy Ment Health 41, 21–31 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0526-0

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