The Trauma and Grief Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans Partners with New Orleans JJIC to Provide Trauma and Grief Support to Juvenile Youth

New partnership will provide evidence-based, trauma- and grief-focused intervention designed to reduce violent behavior and promote resiliency in system-involved youth

NEW ORLEANS – The Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans was recently awarded a $100,000 Grief Reach grant from the New York Life Foundation to support culturally appropriate trauma and grief-informed care to youth within the TAG Center and the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center (JJIC). For the first time, this partnership will allow the TAG Center to provide a new way to support at-risk youth in the JJIC, with a particular focus on grief within the context of violent death.

Through this funding, the TAG Center will explicitly address the intersection of racial trauma and violent loss among youth of color that are seen in at the TAG Center. And, for the first time, this joint collaboration will help the TAG Center advance its work with the JJIC to provide an evidence-based intervention, Trauma and Grief Component Therapy (TGCT) which has been co-developed by Dr. Kaplow, to the many detained youth who have experienced traumatic deaths.

“For many youth, access to mental health care is a significant barrier in New Orleans. Almost no juvenile justice centers across the country offer interventions that directly address grief, despite the very high rates of bereavement among youth in those settings,” said Dr. Julie Kaplow, executive director of the Trauma and Grief Center at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. “We are grateful to accept this generous grant from the New York Life Foundation to support our partnership with the JJIC and to create a meaningful impact for youth in our juvenile justice system, the vast majority of whom have experienced multiple traumas and losses due to gun violence over the course of their young lives.”

Many youth in the juvenile justice system are unable to address the underlying grief that causes their delinquent behaviors because they have nowhere to turn. Many of them – particularly youth of color – have reported higher rates of traumatic bereavement, with over 75 percent experiencing two or more violent deaths of loved ones before the age of five. Despite this prevalence, the lack of identifying the role of grief in juvenile delinquency is what often leads to ineffective mental health support.

The TAG Center at Children’s Hospital, in collaboration with the JJIC and the New York Life Foundation, have taken the first steps to ensure that youth in the juvenile justice system have the resources and support they need to address trauma and grief and to develop positive coping strategies to abstain from potential violent behaviors and help them live more positive and productive lives in their communities.

“Our continued partnership with the TAG Center focuses on providing need supports for a population that has been historically marginalized and underserved,” said Maria Collins, vice president, New York Life Foundation. “We are honored to be part of an initiative that will promote understanding and resiliency among unseen youth in the juvenile justice system.”

“We have had a long-standing partnership with Children’s Hospital New Orleans to provide medical and psychiatric care to detained youth,” said Kyshun Webster, executive director at the JJIC. “Additionally, we look forward to working with the TAG Center to provide evidence-based interventions to address the pressing trauma and grief-related needs our juvenile population in New Orleans often struggle with.”

The TAG Center’s primary intervention is Trauma and Grief Component Therapy (TGCT), an evidence-based, assessment-driven treatment for youth whose histories of trauma and traumatic loss place them at high risk for severe and persisting distress, functional impairment and developmental disruption. Originally designed for use in group settings, TGCT is unique in that it directly addresses trauma, grief and its interplay. TGCT has been implemented among diverse populations in schools, mental health settings and juvenile justice sites across the U.S., and has proven effective in reducing PTSD, depression, maladaptive grief, and violent behavior, while enhancing positive youth development and behaviors.

Over the course of this initiative, the grant funding will help TAG Center clinicians provide TGCT to an additional 96 youth within the TAG Center, and 240 youth within the JJIC. In addition to measuring symptom reduction, youth will be provided with a brief survey to assess their satisfaction with the treatment, which treatment elements were most helpful, and which aspects they would change in the future.

The philanthropic support from the New York Life Foundation, which invests in programs that benefit young people, particularly in educational enhancement, childhood bereavement and social justice and equity support, has been instrumental in bringing this initiative to fruition to help many bereaved juvenile youth in New Orleans.

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About Children’s Hospital New Orleans

Children’s Hospital is a 267-bed, non-profit academic pediatric medical center that offers comprehensive healthcare services, including over 40 pediatric specialties, delivered just for children. With more than 600 pediatric providers, Children’s offers a comprehensive array of pediatric healthcare services in Louisiana and the Gulf South. In addition to its main campus located in New Orleans, the hospital operates a network of specialty clinics across Louisiana, including in Covington, Baton Rouge, Alexandria, Lafayette, and Bay St. Louis, MS. Children’s offers primary care services at 12 convenient locations and remotely via its Virtual Care for Kids program. The Trauma and Grief Center at Children’s Hospital provides evidence-based assessment and treatment for children and adolescents, ages 0 to 21, who have experienced any form of trauma and/or the death of a loved one. Using state-of-the-art screening tools, the TAG Center ensures that youth receive the most appropriate and effective treatments. Children’s is a proud member of LCMC Health, a Louisiana-based, not-for-profit hospital system which also includes New Orleans East Hospital, Touro, University Medical Center New Orleans, West Jefferson Medical Center, and East Jefferson General Hospital. Learn more at www.chnola.org.

About the New York Life Foundation

Inspired by New York Life’s tradition of service and humanity, the New York Life Foundation has, since its founding in 1979, provided over $390 million in charitable contributions to national and local nonprofit organizations. The Foundation supports programs that benefit young people, particularly in the areas of educational enhancement, childhood bereavement and social justice. The Foundation also encourages and facilitates the community involvement of employees and agents of New York Life through its Volunteers for Good program and Grief-Sensitive Schools Initiative. To learn more, please visit www.newyorklifefoundation.org.