Families Together: Walking, talking, supporting each other



ALBANY COUNTY — People will be walking to raise awareness of children’s mental health problems and to fight stigmas tomorrow at the First Annual 5k Benefit Walk for Children’s Mental Health at the Crossings of Colonie.

Families Together in Albany County, which works to support and empower children and youth with social, emotional, or behavioral concerns and to support their families, too, collaborated with multiple organizations for the May 9 event.

“The outcome that we’re hoping [for], is to bring more awareness to children’s mental health because, in a lot of ways, children’s mental health is very stigmatizing,” said Brooke Schewe, the director of Families Together.

“People don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “We’re hoping that this walk will not only raise funds for the program — because, of course, that’s always needed — but also bring this awareness and eliminate stigma and get people talking about it.”

This month is Mental Health Month and today is National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.

Schewe said it’s up to a parent or youngster to contact Families Together, which serves children and teens from birth to age 21.

“None of our services are mandated or forced upon anybody,” she said. Families Together provides information and referrals, she said, to a broad range of families and youth with needs.

They include a 4-year-old, who might be getting kicked out of a day-care program; a 10-year-old, who might have trouble with schoolwork and trouble focusing; a 15-year-old who might be at risk of harming himself or committing suicide; and a 17-year-old, who is getting in trouble and kicked out of school.

A couple of years ago, Schewe said, the United States Surgeon General’s office estimated in a report that one in 10 children have a diagnosable, serious, emotional disturbance and about half of them are not receiving treatment and do not have the ability to access treatment.

Tomorrow’s walk will benefit children and youth in Families Together’s youth program — the Youth Empowerment Project, which aims to help those who are 12 to 21 years old with social, emotional, or behavioral concerns through social and recreational programs and peer-to-peer counseling and support.

“Some of the families that we work with may not necessarily have the economic means to make a pledge, to make a donation, and we don’t want to exclude anyone to come and participate, not just in the walk but in anything that we do,” said Sean Wyse, the social marketing coordinator for Families Together.

“We really want our organization to be a true community organization that is open to everyone,” he said. “And not just the families and the youth that we work with but to any person who might actually be at the park that day, casually walking their dog or whatever they might be doing. We would like them to come by and learn a little bit more about what we do at Families Together and also learn, through our exhibitors’ fair, what some of our partners do as well.”

Many organizations will be on hand, including Medicaid, Parsons Child and Family Center, Albany County Probation, Albany County Early Intervention, and Albany County Youth Bureau.

Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, District Attorney David Soares, and Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan have been invited to speak at the event.

“Our expectations are high for our first walk, but we know this walk is not going to be as large as our walks in the future,” said Wyse. “But this is a great starting point,” he said, “and having the commitment from local dignitaries is really exciting because we could use that for media attention the day of, and then more people will become aware of our walk, our organization, and the work that we do and the work that our parent partners do.”

Families Together has three sites in Albany County — in Albany, Colonie, and the Hilltowns. Mary Beth Peterson and Kathy Bishop are parent partners — mothers with children who have special needs — at the Hilltown site in East Berne.

There are social workers at each site, who can give psycho-social behavioral assessments. Families Together offers short-term therapy and parent support groups and workshops. A mothers’ group meets at the Hilltown site on Tuesday mornings.

“We all are parents with children with special needs,” said Peterson. “So one of the things we can help a parent with is: We’ve walked the road already and we’ve struggled and we’ve found our way.”

That is how they really help parents get through what could be a devastating point in their lives, said Peterson.

She said they are working very closely with the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District and starting to work with Greenville schools.

“We go to school meetings, we go to doctors’ appointments if necessary, we’ll make the phone calls with them and for them. We go to family court,” Peterson said.

She said families have found the Circle-of-Support extremely helpful. The circle is Families Together’s system in which social workers, ministers, teachers, extended family members, and agencies overlap to help children or youth succeed.

“If there is multi-agency involvement, we will bring all of the agencies to our table and we just come together as a team,” said Peterson. “We’re looking at it from a team point of view,” she said, “and we all come up with a common goal, and we make a plan for the family, and it’s family-driven so they have who they want at the table and they are pretty much running the plan.”

Peterson said they try to meet every four to six weeks with the families so that they can stay on top of the plan and make sure everybody understands and knows what is going on.

“Our goal is to make it less cumbersome on the family,” Schewe said, “because, when you have a child with special needs or a child who requires any kind of special attention, no matter what age they are, it can become a full-time job just keeping up with all the appointments through the various systems and the different providers,” she said. “So we really cut through the chase and make it more seamless in bringing everybody together at the table.”

Schewe said, “Our parent partners are parents with personal experience. You just can’t beat that. You can’t ever read in a book and learn what it’s like to walk in the shoes of some of these parents and what they’ve been through.”

Schewe has a son who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; he started early intervention at age 2.

“And now, he’s 11,” she said. “He’s doing well. And only through knowing how to navigate the school system and the various systems, is he thriving and doing well and I feel supported.”

Just like parents know what their children need, kids know what they want, Schewe said.

“We need to listen to them as well,” she said. “It’s something that should be so natural and come so easily, but that’s not how our society and culture has been conditioned. We don’t listen to family. Providers just assume: ‘We went to school. We know what’s best. I’m going to tell you what to do,’” Schewe said. “And then we set people up to fail. We set youth up to fail if we don’t listen to [them] and we don’t listen to the parents.”

“What happens a lot of times is providers — schools — they tell us, as parents, what is best for our children,” said Schewe, adding that she’s not saying they don’t have children’s best interests in mind.

But, she said, a child has been living with his parent for his whole life. There’s nothing, she said, like another parent sharing their story with her — that therapeutic value and commonality.

Families Together receives its funding through a federal grant, which it was awarded in 2004. The grant expires in 2010. Schewe is confident the program will be refunded because of “evidence” from an evaluation program through the University of Albany.

She said results are showing that caregiver strain is down, school performance and attendance is increasing, and the risk of self-injury is significantly reduced once youth are involved in the program.

“We are trying to reach out to the community,” said Peterson, adding that the Hilltowns cover a vast area. There is a part of the community that hasn’t yet been served, she said, and one of Families Togethers’ goals is to try and set up satellites around the Hill.

On May 15, the Hilltown site will again start up a support group and have a barbecue that will be open to everyone, she said.

“We also offer Medicaid and food stamps and HEAP [Home Energy Assistance Program] applications here at this site once a month,” Peterson said. “We’re trying to accommodate the families up here because it is a long distance down to Albany, and there isn’t a lot of agencies up here.”

She said they see families that are homeless.

“We turn no one away,” Peterson said. “We’ll hook up with SafeHaven, and we’re in communication with other agencies. “

“We’re really just trying to reach out and try to form friendships with our community,” she said. “Relationships.”

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The First Annual 5k Benefit Walk for Children’s Mental Health, organized by the Children’s Mental Health System of Care in Albany County, will be held on May 9 at the Crossings of Colonie. Registration and an exhibitors’ fair will be from 4:30 to 6 p.m., the opening ceremony will be at 5:45, and the walk will begin at 6 p.m. The walk is dog friendly and will occur regardless of the weather. Two local bands, Corn Bred and Acoustic Trauma, will play during the walk and at a post-walk celebration. For pledge forms and information, visit www.ftalb.org or call 432-0333 ext. 23.

The Hilltown site is located at 96 Main Street in East Berne. For more information, call 872-1460.