Young child smiling and giving a high-five to an adult, with a caregiver in the background, capturing a warm and collaborative moment in a supportive environment.

Family Advisory Council

When children are hospital patients, they count on their caregivers—both medical and personal—to advocate on their behalf.

When parents have a hospitalized child, they need support and information to help them navigate everything from medical decisions to changes in their everyday routines. That’s why Stony Brook Children’s developed a Family Advisory Council (FAC). The focus of the FAC is to help enhance the child’s hospital experience, which has been shown to result in better health outcomes and greater patient satisfaction. 

Services

The Family Advisory Council has three primary goals:

  • Promote family-centered care by acknowledging, respecting, and leveraging the roles of family members in the care of sick children, in and out of the hospital.
  • Help families by working with the hospital to put support systems in place that allow and encourage family members to speak up and make recommendations on their child’s behalf.
  • Educate and encourage collaboration between families, staff, and the community by offering information on the benefits of family-centered care.

The Council provides feedback and ideas on a wide variety of topics and initiatives, including:

  • New program implementation
  • Developing informational brochures
  • Designing patient space
  • Assisting with educational materials to help parents navigate healthcare for their children
  • Participating with interdisciplinary teams, such as by giving a customer perspective on hospital policies
  • Participating with interdisciplinary teams in designing and implementing new inpatient or outpatient family accommodations
  • Participating in the education of medical students, residents, and nursing students to offer a family perspective regarding patient care

Members of the Council who have or used to have a child at Stony Brook Children’s can offer a unique insider perspective on issues such as:

  • How to make parents' hospital stays more comfortable
  • How parents can be an active part of their child’s healthcare team
  • Patient care decision-making
  • Support for families' emotional needs
  • Enhancing state-of-the-art care and the patient experience

Our Team

The FAC is a volunteer group of caregivers consisting of current and past patients and members of Stony Brook Children’s staff. All volunteers are dedicated to facilitating communication and collaboration between physicians, staff and family members.

The Council periodically has openings for new members. Membership requires a two-year term commitment and attendance at 10 two-hour meetings each year. Click here for the application or contact Joan Alpers, Director of Child Life Services, at (631) 216-3636.

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