The Family Center

The Irene LeeKong Health and Wellness Institute at The Family Center is a full service mental health clinic providing counseling,psychological and psychiatric services. The Institute specializes in serving children, adolescents and teens with mental illness and assists in the positive growth of the entire family.

Legal Services:TFC provides a range of legal services for terminally-ill parents and new caregivers including non-contested custody and guardianship proceedings, advanced directives and entitlements advocacy. For HIV+ individuals, TFC's legal department additionally offers legal consultation and/or representation on a range of legal issues including uncontested and contested family law proceedings, housing, home care, discrimination, consumer finance and breach of confidentiality, provided that the individual's need for legal counsel is directly related to his/her HIV status. Legal representation is provided through direct representation, brief advice and counsel and legal clinics and workshops. Future Care Planning TFC provides future care planning (permanency planning) and family law services for clients. We assist with guardianship for both minor children and disabled adults, child custody visitation, adoption, child and spousal support and paternity. Advanced Directives TFC works to give clients peace of mind and the ability to face the worst with dignity. We assist clients in executing standby guardianships, wills, powers of attorney, living wills and health care proxies. Public Benefits TFC assists clients in accessing public benefits to ensure that parents can provide for children, grandchildren and dependent adults. We provide income maintenance representation on issues such as food stamps, Medicare/Medicaid, HASA benefits and supplemental security income and social security disability benefits. Housing TFC assists clients in maintaining safe and secure housing. We represent them in housing nonpayment, holdover, succession matters and repair cases.

Social Services:Permanency Planning and Disclosure Support TFC assist ill parents with creating a sound future care plan for his/her children. Helping a parent or caregiver develop a viable plan for the future care of his/her children is a complicated task. TFC supports the ill parent through a difficult set of discussions about their mortality and their children's future. Parents are educated about the planning process and the services and entitlements that would be available to the new caregiver in the event of the client's death. We explore with the ill parent possible vulnerabilities in the client's desired plan with the goal of anticipating and addressing any obstacles to the proposed plan. Individual and Family Supportive Counseling -- TFC offers individual and family counseling to its clients. Individual counseling services focus on addressing issues related to illness, trauma and loss, as well as on parenting, self-efficacy and self-care. TFC's family counseling services focus on family communication, family adjustment, and disclosure issues. Mental Health Services -- TFC offers a full service mental health clinic licensed by the NYS Office of Mental Health providing trauma informed counseling, psychological and psychiatric services specializing in working with children and teens struggling with mental illness. All clinic services are provided by Master's level mental health professionals who receive weekly supervision from an LCSW supervisor. Behavioral Health Services -- TFC's behavioral health multi-prong programming includes medical case management designed to ensure that all HIV+ individuals in the households we serve have access to high-quality medical care and information; treatment adherence support services utilizing an individualized counseling model addressing the last three phases of the CDC HIV treatment (Gardner) cascade: helping people stay in HIV care, get on HAART and adhere to regimens to achieve undetectable viral loads. Case Management TFC staff assist clients with accessing a range of benefits for themselves and their families. Case management activities include conducting research about appropriate services and eligibility, making referrals, assisting clients with application processes, providing advocacy, and coordinating services with other providers. Group Services TFC offers a range of groups for adults, teens and families. TFCs group offerings include drop-in groups, closed membership shortterm groups, and ongoing psycho-educational and support groups. Some groups are open up to clients of other TFC Departments and/or partner organizations.Outreach and Community Education TFC has a strong commitment to reaching out to families who could benefit from our services as well as sharing our program model with partner organizations. As part of TFCs outreach strategy, we have developed a series of trainings and workshops in areas of our expertise which we make available to consumer and professional groups. TFC also has team of consumers and former consumers who have been trained as Peer Outreach Workers. The POWs present to varied audiences on services received at TFC and their own personal experiences. The POWs augment our outreach capacity at health fairs and community events and bring a unique voice to our outreach message.Substance Use Services - TFC offers comprehensive outpatient substance use services licensed by the NYS Office of Addiction Supports and Services. Services provided include psychiatric evaluation and medication management, individual and group counseling, case management, health monitoring and overdose prevention services. Medication Assisted Treatment is also provided in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies to address mental health and physical health needs in order to provide a whole-patient approach to the treatment of substance use disorders.