Not Just the Usual Suspects:
Truly Involving Parents in a System of Care

By Stanley Bernard, Project Director, PARK Project

“Tokenism” is one of the most prevalent problems we face as we attempt to create culturally competent systems of care. The mantra of “parents as partners” is a good one and one which all systems of care should follow. Yet once we embrace that mantra, we must recruit parents from a variety of backgrounds to come to the table. The typical method of getting parents to the collaborative table is to “round up the usual suspects,” parents who may be very different from the entire cadre of people they are supposed to represent.

In fact, in Bridgeport , CT , as one would suspect is the case with most systems of care, the typical interagency collaborative team will have one or two parents that “act as the voice” of ALL parents (presumably everywhere). But do these parents speak for everyone? Many times, parents can only speak for themselves and can share only their personal experiences. Although those experiences are similar to others, they are not the same and may be very different from the experiences of parents from different social and cultural backgrounds. To think that a handful (and that's an exaggeration in most cases) of parents can represent all parents is a misguided notion. It does not consider their backgrounds, heritage, education, economic status, or social upbringing.

Many parents, and even para-professional caregivers, going to some of the system of care meetings must feel the “burden of the world” on their shoulders when they are asked to represent all parents. No one wants to be the unofficial representative of a large segment of a society. For example, suppose you say the wrong thing? Suppose you accidentally let out a cultural secret? Suppose the listener misinterprets a word or an action? Then, everyone else that comes after you is penalized for your mistake.

In order to create a truly representative sample of those we are supposed to be partnering with, systems of care must become more vigilant about recruiting family members from diverse backgrounds to sit at the table. In Bridgeport , we are making the effort to make parent and family involvement a priority in building our system of care. We are making the effort not only to recruit, but to mentor and support, family members so they are not intimidated by the professional staff at our meetings. For example, when family members are present at meetings, we have agreed to keep the “alphabet soup” of acronyms to a minimum and to introduce our family backgrounds as well as our professional ones.

The effort is slow but worthwhile. We must acknowledge that the usual suspects just can't cut it any more. Having people at the table as tokens marginalizes their input and their presence. It also misuses a valuable resource, as many of these parents end up exhausted from going to every meeting that needs parent representation.

We invite all parents with children that have a behavioral, emotional, or mental health challenges to join our support groups. We have a day group that meets every second Friday of the month at 9:00 at the PARK project Offices at 75 Washington Avenue in Bridgeport , CT. Our evening group meets every second Tuesday evening at 6:00 here at the PARK project. Call Mildred Fewell at 203-337-4403 if you need more information on these groups or on how to join our leadership teams and committees.

This article is soon to be published in the upcoming “ News and Views from the PARK ” Spring 2005 edition (Vol. 1  No. 1).

The Project for Kids, or PARK project, is Bridgeport , Connecticut 's system of care. In Bridgeport, community service providers and schools work together to develop a system of care that listens to and responds to parents, respects all cultural differences, and provides quality services and supports that puts children's needs first. For more information about the PARK project, visit http://www.theparkproject.org or contact Stanley Bernard at sbernard@theparkproject.org .