News from
CONCERN
Wellsboro Office Launches Family Based Mental Health Services in Tioga County
The Wellsboro office launched a new program called Family Based Mental Health Services (FBMH) in Tioga County. The program helps children and adolescents with serious mental illness or emotional disturbance by providing services in their homes and focusing on the family as a whole. Currently, seven families are enlisted and 12 more families are on a waiting list. The services are provided by a team consisting of a mental health professional and a mental health worker. Each team may serve a maximum caseload of eight families at a time. A second team will be added over the summer.
“My first experience with FBMH was after grad school as a mental health professional and it has proven to be some of the most valuable work experience I have had,” says Wellsboro Clinical Supervisor Terry Drake. “The program is evidenced-based, family-focused, respected throughout the Commonwealth and the Nation. Those reasons, as well as the intensity and team approach, make it an enjoyable program to be a part of,” he continued.
Family Based Mental Health Services was designed by the Child & Adolescent System Service Program (CASSP) with the understanding that children and adolescents are part of a family unit and that services be provided in their natural setting.
“The staff attended orientation at the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Center and will continue with their three-year training program known as Family Based Mental Health Training,” says Paul Rieger, CONCERN’s director of behavioral health services.
Dr. Marian Lindblad-Goldberg, who is director of the center and professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania of Medicine, is instrumental in the development of family-based services and continues to ensure that this evidence-based program is delivered as it should be throughout Pennsylvania.”
Dr. Lindblad-Goldberg is an expert on eco-systemic structural family therapy, supervision, step-families, single parent families, and spontaneity in therapy. Family Based Mental Health services are available to families 24 hours a day, seven days a week. |
