What we do:
Families First in Essex County, Inc. is a non-profit agency that provides supports and services for children/youth and their families who may be struggling socially, emotionally, or behaviorally.
Who we are:
Families First offers free programs and services while partnering with families to improve the youth’s ability to function in their home, school and community.
What services we provide:
Services are listed below.
Contact Person:
Jen Deyo
Outreach Coordinator
(518) 802-8705
jdeyo@familiesfirstessex.org
Deb Mitchell
Outreach Coordinator
(518) 802-8714
dmitchell@familiesfirstessex.org
Is a referral needed?
Yes, Please complete the Permission to Contact Form.
Programs and Services
Health Home Care Management:
Health Home Care Management can assist you and your family in many ways depending on your unique needs at any given time. Below, you will find a comprehensive list of services that your Care Manager could offer. Care Management services are always family-driven, youth-guided, and person centered to meet your needs in the community.
High Fidelity Wraparound:
High Fidelity Wraparound (HFW) is an intensive and individualized team-based planning process led by the family and facilitated by the care manager. Wraparound partners with families to use their voice and strengths to develop a family-driven plan that promotes self-advocacy. Wraparound aims to achieve positive outcomes through team-based support and collaboration. Wraparound plans are holistic and designed to meet the identified needs of caregivers and siblings and to address a range of life areas.
Other Licensed Practitioner (OLP):
Licensed practitioners able to practice independently to provide clinical services. OLP provides assessment, counseling, and crisis intervention within the scope of their practice (NYS Licensure). Can complete medical necessity for additional service.
Community Psychiatric Supports & Treatment (CPST):
CPST is a service intended to assist the youth and caregivers to achieve stability and functional improvement in daily living, personal recovery/resilience, family and interpersonal relationships and school and community integration.
Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR):
PSR services are designed to support a youth’s developmentally appropriate functioning as necessary to integrate the youth into their home, school, and community. Hands-on, task-oriented activities are identified through PSR and executed to eliminate functional deficits as a result of identified diagnosis/barriers.
Family Peer Support Services (FPSS):
FPSS provides an array of formal and informal support to caregivers of youth with functional challenges in their home and community. FPSS support must be intended to achieve the goals/objectives set forth in the youth’s treatment plan through caregiver support.
Youth Peer Support & Training (YPA):
Youth Peer Support and Training (YPST) services are formal and informal services and supports provided to youth, who are experiencing social, medical, emotional, developmental, substance use, and/or behavioral challenges in their home, school, placement, and/or community centered services. These services provide the training and support necessary to ensure engagement and active participation of the youth in the treatment planning process and with the ongoing implementation and reinforcement of skills.
Planned Respite:
Provides short term assistance to the youth and family because of the absence of or need for relief of the child/caregiver.
Prevocational Services:
Prevocational services are designed to provide youth, age 14 and older, with opportunities for skill development in areas of work habits, acceptable job behaviors, and learning job production requirements. This service is NOT permitted to teach specific skills of a particular job, rather are focused on underlying habilitative goals to increase success in the paid workforce. Prevocational services can be delivered in a volunteer setting. This service should support the youth’s interests and talents to support them in seeking future employment in an area of interest and be delivered according to US Department of Labor workforce guidelines.
Caregiver/Family Advocacy and Support Services (C/FASS):
Caregiver/Family Advocacy and Support Services enhance the child/youth’s ability, regardless of disability, to function as part of a caregiver/family unit and enhance the caregiver/family’s ability to care for the child/youth in the home and/or community.
Supported Employment:
Supported Employment is designed to prepare youth with disabilities to engage in paid work. This service provides support to the youth while they perform in a work setting.
Family Peer Support Services (FPSS):
FPSS provides an array of formal and informal support to caregivers of youth with functional challenges in their home and community. FPSS support must be intended to achieve the goals/objectives set forth in the youth’s treatment plan through caregiver support.
Respite:
Provides short term assistance to the youth and family because of the absence of or need for relief of the child/caregiver.