✕
Share Your Feedback
We’d love to hear from you
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Brooklyn has the density, the diversity and the community infrastructure that peer support depends on, which is part of why it works well here. Peer support in Brooklyn means a trained advocate who has been through their own mental health difficulties meeting your young person where they actually are, often somewhere in the neighborhood rather than in a clinic. Here's how the service works locally and how to access it.
Peer support depends on meeting young people in ordinary places, and Brooklyn has plenty of them. Parks, libraries, community centers, cafes and schools are all within walking distance of most neighborhoods, which means an advocate can meet a teenager somewhere that doesn't feel like an appointment.
The borough's size helps too. A teenager who won't cross into Manhattan for a session will often walk fifteen minutes to meet someone locally, and that difference determines whether the relationship gets off the ground at all.
There's a cultural dimension as well. Brooklyn's neighborhoods vary enormously, and an advocate who understands the particular pressures of a young person's community, school and family background starts from a position of understanding that takes much longer to establish otherwise.
Two distinct roles. A Youth Peer Advocate works with the young person: building confidence, helping them speak for themselves, providing an ally who has been through something comparable.
A Family Peer Advocate works with parents and caregivers, who are frequently exhausted, isolated and navigating systems nobody explained to them. Having someone who has raised a child through mental health difficulties, and who understands how school meetings and services work, changes what parents can manage.
Parents often underestimate how much this second role matters. A caregiver who is depleted and out of their depth has less capacity to support a struggling child, and the family advocate exists to address that directly rather than treating it as an afterthought.
The early stage is mostly about reliability. An advocate turns up when they said they would, does what they said they'd do, and doesn't push for disclosure. For a young person who has been let down by adults or services before, that consistency is the intervention, even though it looks like very little is happening.
Things usually become more concrete from the second month onward: a goal the young person chose themselves, a meeting they attended, a conversation they'd been avoiding. Parents often notice the change in language before anything else, as a teenager starts describing their situation as something they have some control over.
Progress isn't linear and it isn't guaranteed. What matters more than the pace is whether the young person keeps showing up, which is the clearest early indicator that the match is working.
Service
What it addresses
Therapy
Symptoms, patterns, skills
Psychiatry
Medication where appropriate
Youth peer support
Confidence, engagement, self-advocacy
Family peer support
Parent capacity and system navigation
Most families use two or three of these at once. A teenager might have weekly therapy at our Brooklyn clinic while meeting an advocate locally, with a parent seeing a Family Peer Advocate separately.
Cost is a common concern, and worth settling early. Peer support is a recognized service in New York, and coverage varies by plan. Our team can check what yours includes before anything begins. Our insurance page sets out what we accept generally.
Access usually starts the same way as any other service: a conversation with our intake team about what's happening and what would help. Peer support can begin alongside therapy, after it, or in some cases before a young person is ready for clinical work at all.
One practical note for Brooklyn families: ask specifically whether peer support is delivered in person, because a growing number of services describe themselves as offering peer support while operating entirely by video. Both have their place, but for a young person who has withdrawn from their own neighborhood, the difference between someone who appears on a screen and someone who turns up at the park is not a small one.
It is a reasonable question to ask on a first call, and the answer tells you a good deal about how a service is actually run.
We provide Youth Peer Advocate and Family Peer Advocate services across Brooklyn and all five boroughs, in person wherever possible, for children, teens and young adults ages 5 to 21. See our peer support page or get in touch on 718-400-0545.
In community settings across the borough: parks, libraries, cafes, schools, or at our Brooklyn clinic. The setting is chosen to suit the young person.
Yes. Our peer services cover Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, in person wherever practical.
Youth advocates work with the young person; Family advocates work with parents and caregivers. Some families use both.
Not necessarily. It can run alongside therapy, follow it, or in some cases precede it.
Advocates are matched for relatability where possible, which can include local knowledge as well as shared experience.
Peer support is a recognized service and coverage varies by plan. Our team can check your specific benefits.
Commonly weekly or every two weeks, with flexibility around school and family commitments.
Often yes, with your consent. Many young people participate far more when someone is there alongside them.
Mount Behavioral Health works with children, teens and young adults ages 5 to 21, with peer support most commonly used by teens.
Contact our intake team and ask about peer support. They'll explain what's available and how it fits with any other care.
If your child is in immediate danger or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.
