Parents

The Family Support Center offers professional expert assistance to parents, families, and parent groups, with flexible office hours, resource manuals, and crisis counseling.

How can Family Support Center help you?

Clinical Assessments and Counseling
Family Support Center professionals provide expert consultation and thorough clinical assessments for children from pre-kindergarten through grade twelve. Assessments are available either at the school or our offices in Bethesda; counseling is offered at our Bethesda office only.

These services are for families who child may be experiencing behavioral or academic difficulties, a mental health problem, alcohol or other drug concerns, or a combination of these issues.

Out evaluations provide practical recommendations to parents and school professionals and will provide you with comprehensive recommendations for follow-up action, community resources or outside treatment services.

TalkingWorks
Family Support Center professionals provide expert presentations, workshops, support groups, and consultation to help parents and caregivers understand their child's developmental needs and support their social and emotional health. Our programs focus on skills to strengthen protective factors, and encourage parents to take an active role in prevention by fostering ongoing conversations with their children.

Our professionals present topics we have found to be essential for families to address, as well as sample questions, and valuable ways to start the conversation. Our seminars are informative, but time sensitive for busy parents and available in your workplace or at school.

Parents as Resources Training Program
This training is a follow-up enhancement to the TalkingWorks program, for parents who would like to gain more insight and information, and who would like to increase personal skills and parent networking.

In these highly interactive group training sessions, parents are trained in skill-building to handle specific challenging parenting scenarios. Parents not only learn skills to help them cope with issues within their own families, they also become acquainted with other concerned parents which lead to the development of strong and significant support networks.

Links to Helpful Resources
	Healthfinder http://www.healthfinder.gov Healthfinder is a consumer health and human services information Web site, sponsored by the federal government, that will lead you to publications, clearinghouses, databases, Web sites, support and self-help groups.
	Facts for Families http://www.aacap.org Concise materials on childhood depression, teen suicide, sexual abuse, and many other issues. Prepared by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
	National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/ Online forums, referrals, searchable databases, research, statistics, publications, and resources.
	National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism http://www.niaaa.nih.gov Publications, resources, and databases pertaining to alcoholism and alcohol abuse.
	National Institute on Drug Abuse http://www.nida.nih.gov Information and publications about drugs of abuse.
	National Institute of Mental Health http://www.nimh.nih.gov Information on specific mental disorders, news, events, and research.
	National Mental Health Association http://nmha.org Facts, figures, and discussions about mental illness in the family.
	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) http://www.samhsa.gov Publications, reports, and statistics on substance abuse and mental health through the Center for Mental Health Services, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.