Parent University now known as Friends and Family University

04/14/23 04:30:pm

The name of Parent University is changing to Friends and Family University in order to be more inclusive to all the roles that support our patients through their treatment.

This long-running program first started to provide education to those supporting our child and adolescent patients in residential and partial hospitalization (PHP) and intensive outpatient (IOP) levels of care. It was later expanded to loved ones supporting patients in adult programs.

“This program is important to patients’ long-term success,” says Rachel Leonard, PhD, executive director, clinical strategy. “Their support systems get the chance to learn more about symptoms and treatment modalities for the disorders we treat and can ask questions of members of their loved one’s treatment team.”

Loved ones meet with treatment team members to learn about how to best support patients during and after treatment. The sessions are available virtually for some locations and either in person or virtually for others.

“Friends and Family University is popular with our families because it provides helpful and clear information about what adolescents need from their families,” says Peggy Scallon, MD, medical director, Focus Depression Recovery adolescent residential care. “We provide clear, practical information families can use right away.”

Here’s how one patient’s parent said Friends and Family University helped them:

“This program helped train me as much as it did my son. As a parent, come open to being ‘wrong’ in that there may be things that feel natural to do as a parent (reassuring/accommodations) that you will need to stop doing. It gets harder before it gets better, but there’s so much support in the program… Soak up all the information through Friends and Family (Parent) University, through the handouts you receive, and through the modeling of how your behavioral specialist interacts with your child. …We now know how to deal with (our son’s challenges) and have a huge toolbox of tools to utilize.”

“If you work with patients and families, please help us make this change by embracing the new name and helping explain the reasons for the new term when needed,” asks Dr. Leonard.

For questions, please contact Dr. Leonard at Rachel.Leonard@rogersbh.org.