For the last ten years, families with kids in crisis have been able to turn for guidance to KidsPeace’s clinics in Pennsylvania, through an innovative program that provides free walk-in assessments of their child.  The sessions offer the chance to develop a safety plan and pathway to care for the youth, often when the family feels it has exhausted all other options.  The sessions also help divert from local hospital emergency rooms cases that can be best addressed in other parts of the medical system.

On the latest episode of the Conversations with KidsPeace podcast, community programs manager Breannah Allen explains what is done -- and NOT done -- during the assessments, and what sort of advice families receive during the sessions.