CASE STUDY
Transforming Parental Support in the Mariana Islands
In the Northern Mariana Islands, where resources for mental health support are scarce and cultural resonance is often lacking, one local leader has sparked a quiet revolution. Philip Santos, Lead Family Coordinator for the CHCC-CGC System of Care Program in the capital of Saipan, recognized a growing need: parents of children and adolescents with mental health challenges were overwhelmed, isolated, and under-supported.
To meet that need, Santos turned to the GPS Group Peer Support model. His determination to implement GPS in Saipan marked the beginning of a transformative journey that would reshape how families in his community access and experience support.
Challenges
Parents of children who are facing mental health challenges encounter a complex landscape of unmet needs in Saipan. While Western-based programs like Parenting Wisely were available, they lacked cultural relevance and emotional depth for many families. These models didn’t account for local customs, values, or the lived experiences of islanders.
The geographic isolation of Saipan compounded the problem—travel for in-person training was prohibitively expensive, and support services remained centralized and inaccessible. As a result, many families were left to navigate their children’s mental health struggles in isolation, without the tools or community to support them.
Experience
Refusing to let financial and logistical barriers stand in the way, Santos discovered GPS’s online facilitator training. Undeterred by a 10-hour time difference between Saipan and the U.S. East Coast, he stayed up through the night to complete the live training sessions. His persistence paid off—he earned his GPS certification and was finally equipped to launch the support groups he envisioned.
With GPS’s flexible and culturally adaptable model in hand, Santos began facilitating support groups specifically for parents of children within the CHCC-CGC System of Care and the Healthy Transitions program. These were not your standard parenting groups—they became deeply empathetic spaces for shared storytelling, mutual support, and collective resilience.
By integrating culturally attuned practices into the GPS structure, Santos ensured that the groups felt familiar and safe for local families. The result was a dynamic blend of evidence-based mental health strategies and community-based healing.
Impact & Transformation
The results were immediate and powerful:
- Empowerment Through Community: Parents who once felt alone discovered that their struggles were shared. This connection provided relief, validation, and renewed strength.
- Culturally Relevant Coping Strategies: The GPS model was adapted to respect local customs, breaking through the limitations of previously used Western curricula.
- Ripple Effect of Support: Encouraged by the success of these initial groups, Santos and his team began exploring how GPS could be extended to the youth and young adults served by the Healthy Transitions program—creating a family-centered ecosystem of care.
Most importantly, parents described feeling “seen, heard, and understood”—a transformative outcome that had not been possible through earlier efforts. With these groups, Santos wasn’t just offering education; he was building community resilience, one session at a time.
Philip Santos’ commitment to bringing GPS to the Mariana Islands exemplifies what’s possible when innovation, cultural humility, and determination converge. By adapting GPS for local families and leading training sessions in the middle of the night, he set a new standard for what family support can look like—grounded in compassion, equity, and empowerment.
GPS continues to stand beside Santos and the CHCC-CGC System of Care, supporting their mission to elevate peer-led mental health care in the region. What began as a single leader’s vision has become a movement—one that proves connection, culture, and community can transform even the most isolated systems of care.
