Support Parents are also known as Mentor Parents, Visiting Parents, Parent Partners, Buddies, Pals, Advocates, Support Parents and many other such names across America and around the world.

They are experienced parents, often called "veterans", who provide parent-to-parent support to other parents who have children with similar special needs or are experiencing a difficult situation. This situation could be the birth of a child with a disability, a parent going through divorce, or a child having problems in school.

These parents share their experiences and help provide resources and support to other families. They are peer counselors. They are the key elements in a parent-to-parent program.

I do not know the source of the following statement, but I believe it is one of the best definitions of mentoring that I have seen:"Mentoring directs a novice through a safe, emotionally supportive environment that fosters learning and independence."

Parent-to-Parent Matches

The Support Parent component of Parents Helping Parents (PHP) is the major reason for which the organization was formed. By this method, new parents (and/or existing parents with a concern about their child) are matched with a veteran parent. The goal is that they will have a one-to-one friendship and peer counseling relationship with someone who has been in a situation similar to their own.

When possible the client is matched with an MSP whose child has the same disability, illness or concern and lives nearby. Some disabilities are so rare that it is impossible to find a parent with an identically diagnosed child, so a similar disability is matched locally, and an identically diagnosed match is searched for nationally or internationally.

View the Online Support Parent Training Overview

Take the first step to become a support parent by submitting this form.  You will be contacted by phone when we have a potential match for you.  Thanks!

Submit your Application to become a support parent here: http://www.php.com/support-parent-information-submission

As a support parent, you are a parents who has their own feelings and situation under control. You are having a positive experience handling your life and your children. Does this mean your life is perfect? No, but you have the energy and time to support another parent.  You will visit or open your doors to other parents who might need:

• Information
• Role models
• Confidence
• Emotional support
• Choices

Support Parents serve mainly as role models and friends, supplying information and supporting the family as needed, thus reducing the family's stress and letting them make their own best decisions. An atmosphere is created in which this decision-making process can most effectively take place. This parent-to-parent contact is one of the eight key elements of family-centered care that professionals are asked to promote.

Parents interested in being a support parent  are encouraged to take PHP's three-hour peer-counseling training program. Sometimes, a support parent has yet to take a training but is willing to support another parent. They may be contacted by a PHP staff who has reviewed their experience and has providing them PHP's Dos and Don’ts List (see Appendix 11) for Visiting Parents and read the training manual.

Appendix 11: DOS AND DONTS LIST for Support Parents (Peer Counselors) - Things to Do

• Let the family you are talking to direct the conversation. Encourage them to express their concerns and questions.
• Be open-minded and accepting of their feelings and attitudes.
• Be a good listener.
• Confidentiality is a must.
• Acknowledge and talk to and about the other children in the family.
• Ask about the other parent and how he or she is doing if they are not present.
• Ask the parent how he or she is doing. In particular, ask about how the mother is recovering from the birthing process.
• Act as a friend and share similar feelings, fears, apprehensions etc.
• Boost morale and self-image, e.g. comment on positive steps they have already taken.
• Tactfully relate your own positive experiences, but let them find their own solutions.
• Inform them of support services related to their child’s disability, but don’t overload them with information at first as they may feel threatened.
• Give them the basic PHP information packet to keep and use as the need arises. Encourage them to start a file in one place for the child’s records and papers.
• Encourage parents to take time out for themselves, with a view toward balance in caring for and meeting the needs of all the family members.
• Agree with them, if they say, that this is a terrible thing that has happened to them and their child (not that the child is a terrible thing).
• Find something about the child that lets you make a positive or complimentary statement (curly hair, great skin, sleeping well, crying - has good lungs, etc).

Things Not To Do

• Do not try to psychoanalyze.
• Do not give medical advice.
• Do not try to give final answers or solutions. You may tell them what you have done, but let them reason things out. You may try to present various alternatives.
• Do not criticize professionals, agencies, or institutions of care. You will of course listen patiently to them if they complain or criticize. Then you may say something like: you are really upset about your last visit to the doctor; or, I can understand how upset you must be. These are acceptable neutral comments; you are not attacking the service provider.
• Do not "dump" your problems on them. (If you are having a rough time call your MSP or call PHP and talk to the person that contacted you or another PHP Staff). Do not accept an assignment if things are hectic for you at the time of the call.
• Do not take on their problem. You are there to help them by being a good listener as they talk about and come up with possible solutions for their problem. You may suggest referrals and resources that can help them. These actions let you reach out and help the family without directly solving their problem or taking it on as yours.
• Do not talk about them to others. If they have shared a problem with the family services staff at the center you can discuss it with them to gain further information to support them.
• Do not share medicines.

Sometimes your "thank you" may comes years after you have done this good deed of mentoring another parent.

Submit your Application to become a support parent here: http://www.php.com/support-parent-information-submission

Parents Helping Parents, Inc.,PROGRAM FACT SHEET

TITLE: MENTOR VISITING PARENTS (MVPs)

A Parent-to-Parent Program

Resource: "Visiting Parents" is a Peer Counselors Training Workbook by Florene Stewart Poyadue. This complete manual is available through the National Center on Parent-Directed Family Resource Centers. Call: PHP-The Family Resource Center, National Center  Ph: (408) 727-5775.

(c) Florene Stewart Poyadue, 1991

Revised 2008 Parents Helping Parents, Inc.
1400 Parkmoor Avenue, Suite 100
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 727-5775
www.php.com