Brooklyn Parenting Center | Maimonides Children's Hospital

Expanding access to integrated developmental, behavioral, and mental health services for your family

The Brooklyn Parenting Center provides support from conception to age two – a critical period for brain development that can shape the child’s health over their entire life – and includes:

Early childhood perinatal mental health visits integrated into prenatal care to support families on their positive parenting journey
Universal unmet social needs (food, housing, education, etc.) screenings used to connect families with care management and referrals to community resources
Perinatal mental health support for those immediately postpartum and with children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
Pediatric Healthy Steps Specialist integrated in the pediatrics primary care clinic

Brooklyn is home to an estimated 2.7 million individuals, of which almost 200,000 are children under the age of five. For many Brooklyn families, there’s a lack of access to integrated medical services that can address both physical and socio-emotional health. Through the Brooklyn Parenting Center, we’re able to expand access to care for both parents and children.

Bolstering positive childhood experiences

Through a joint effort between OB/GYN and pediatrics, families will find support during three formative touch points: prenatally, postpartum/newborn, and early childhood. The Brooklyn Parenting Center will promote health equity through early access to psychosocial care in the medical center and through partnerships with community organizations.

Screening parents for unmet psycho-social needs, intergenerational trauma, and mental health concerns before a child is born can help address health risk factors and promote long-term positive health outcomes.

We provide touchpoints during the following time periods in order to nurture safe, stable relationships:

Prenatal touchpoint

The first touchpoint will begin in the first trimester during prenatal visits, where birthing families will be introduced to the Brooklyn Parenting Center and connected to our integrated perinatal mental health specialist. During this formative time, our team will work with families to identify unmet social and emotional needs and use a resilience-based model of care that will include the opportunity to connect with community-based partners. Subsequently, those who are enrolled in the parenting center will engage with our team throughout pregnancy to prepare for parenthood.

Postpartum touchpoint

The early weeks of life are a critical but challenging time, and our team will reach out to every new parent during the immediate postpartum period in the hospital. Families will be screened for unmet psycho-social needs, and offered brief therapeutic interventions as well as referrals to our community partners to help them through before them are connected to the pediatric team.

For families with children recovering in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), our team will offer ongoing support through individual and group sessions.

During this time, parents can also participate in parenting classes that will allow families to ask any questions about the first week of life and receive community support from families with children the same age. Our specialists will review safety and important medical topics but also emphasize the foundation for positive parenting and attachment.

Early childhood touchpoints

During the first two years of life, families will be seen by our Healthy Steps Specialist, as an integrated team-based approach to nurturing safe stable relationships. Healthy Steps is an evidence-based interdisciplinary pediatric primary care program designed to promote positive parenting and healthy development for infants and toddlers.

To learn more about our services, please contact (718) 283-6347 or [email protected].