Parenting Support Services (PSS) provides skill instruction and support to adults with challenges who have or are about to have children. Our goal is to teach and support parents how to provide appropriate care for their children and to maintain the family unit.
Parents with challenges require unique support when caring for and raising their children and the needs of the children are considered as important as the needs of the people we support. The PSS program uses everyday tasks and responsibilities as teaching moments as well as opportunities for the people we support to make decisions and choices. Services help parents identify and use needed resources, learn necessary skills, and establish schedules and routines. CS staff provide necessary instruction and support to allow parents to provide for their children emotionally, physically, and financially, while exercising the greatest level of personal independence possible.
PSS often works in conjunction with other services currently provided to the parent to complement and enhance other services provided by CS or by another agency. CS is only authorized to provide services, including transportation, to the people we support; participants requiring direct support for their children are referred to the RCOC to re-evaluate their services and support structure.
This program provides services in the following areas:
- Access generic and community resources
- Advocacy/Self-advocacy
- Attending to their children’s physical, emotional and financial needs
- Child Development (e.g., age-appropriate care, milestones, obtaining medical/dental treatment, teach life skills, appropriate use of discipline, etc.)
- Healthy Relationship development and maintenance (e.g., proper boundaries with children, significant others, family, care providers and friends)
- Nutrition
- Problem-solving, including coping with frustration/stress and anger management
- Safety
- Self-care (e.g., medical, physical and emotional wellness)
- Social Skills and developing social networks
- Time Management, including establishing and maintaining consistent schedules for daily needs (e.g., meals, hygiene, age-appropriate responsibilities, play, sleep, etc.)
- Transportation (public and/or generic)
Parenting Support Programs are monitored by Regional Center of Orange County; for more information, you may check their website: www.rcocdd.com