Caring for a child with special needs can be difficult and sometimes overwhelming. Family support groups and respite care can reduce stress and pressure and ultimately enhance the parent’s effectiveness.

Program:
Family Center is a program that provides family support services designed to enhance the capacity of families to care for their emotionally disturbed child and reduce the need for long-term hospitalization. The primary services provided by the Family Center program are parent support groups and respite care. The program employs parent advocates who have personal experience raising a child with behavioral and/or emotional problems. 

The program serves families raising children with emotional and behavioral difficulties between the age of 5 and 18 who reside in Nassau County. 

Family Center does not discriminate because of race, creed, or national origin. It is one of many programs offered by Family and Children’s Association, a nonprofit agency providing residential and support services to Long Island youth and their families since 1884. 

Services:

• Family support groups offer parents mutual support by providing opportunities to meet with other parents raising children with emotional and/or behavioral problems. There is an exchange of information as to available treatments, causes of emotional and behavioral disorders, and how to cope with the stress of raising a child with an emotional disability.  The groups are led or co-led by a parent advocate.
• Respite provides temporary care to a seriously emotionally disturbed child or adolescent while providing relief to the family
•  Advocacy for families and children
• Skills development/training 
• Home visits 
• Parent “warm-line” for support and information during times of crisis

Referrals:
To get an application for Family Center, please contact the Director or Supervisor. 

Family Center is funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health

and the Nassau County Department of Mental Health

Adolescents, At risk of institutional care, Children., Conflict, Family preservation, Intervention

Preventive services, Psychiatric care, Respite Care, SED, Severely emotionally disabled children

Teens