Children’s Trauma Resource Option
A new standard of care, pediatric trauma and integrated behavior health.
Trauma is the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event. Children are no exception. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm a child's sense of safety, self, and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships.
This situation is difficult for any child coping with trauma, specifically for children and their families. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) research state that “at least 1 in 7 children have experienced childhood trauma and neglect in the past year, and this is an underestimation”. Studies show that about 15% to 43% of girls and 14% to 43% of boys go through at least one trauma. Of those children and teens who have had trauma, 3% to 15% of girls and 1% to 6% of boys develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Rates of PTSD are higher for certain types of trauma survivors, especially for children living in areas with extreme poverty and community violence. Within the US, the city of Memphis has been identified as a mental health desert, with limited access to mental healthcare resources, particularly for those most vulnerable.
But the BRAIN Center at the University of Memphis provides services to those families who do not have access to therapy and other trauma services. The BRAIN Center and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital have partnered to provide integrated mental health assessment and counseling services to pediatric trauma patients and their family members treated at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. These services offer life-saving mental health support to address the hidden emotional wounds caused by life-changing traumatic experiences for children. These services are essential to address trauma, alleviate mental health grief and encourage resiliency. “We’re attending to your physical and emotional health and well-being,” says Dr. Eraina Schauss, the BRAIN Center’s founding director and associate professor in the department of Counseling, Educational Psychology & Research.
This partnership has existed for two years. The BRAIN Center team has provided over 3,000 counseling sessions to 1,800 patients and their family members. Schauss noted that there is no limit on the number of sessions for patients and families so they can get the support they need.
“When we first started at Le Bonheur, we conducted a needs assessment to see how many of our patients were experiencing mental health symptoms consistent with Acute Stress Disorder (an early form of PTSD, we found that 64.8% of the 617 patients we treated in our first six months were suffering from this diagnosis. This is a staggering number. It emphasized what we already knew that physical injury goes hand in hand with mental health distress, but now we had the data to prove it,” says Schauss. The study, conducted by the University of Memphis-based BRAIN Center team, was published in the Journal of Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open and is the most extensive study of pediatric trauma patients and mental health distress. The BRAIN Center advances mental health treatment, training, and research through evidence-based practice and advocacy. “Our work is more than providing clinical services in our community; it is also about training a labor force of individuals capable of meeting the growing mental health needs we currently face,” said Schauss.
As a University of Memphis Center, the BRAIN Center focuses on student training.
“When Le Bonheur graciously asked us to come in and develop a new standard of pediatric mental healthcare, I thought it would be an excellent idea to build a training program like a medical residency training program. This Model would take graduate students from the University of Memphis’ Counseling Programs and train them in our model and how to provide services in integrated behavioral health settings under the supervision of licensed faculty and staff.”
The model Schauss is referring to is called Hurt-2-Healing™ (or H2H™), one she developed along with her BRAIN Center colleagues. Hurt-2-Healing™ is the nation’s first comprehensive pediatric trauma assessment and counseling service program.
“It is our greatest hope that in a couple of years, H2H™ will be in hospitals across the US. No child should be left needing mental health services with nowhere to go. Our society recognizes the benefit of addressing mental health services with nowhere to go. Our society is recognizing the benefit of addressing mental health symptoms at a time of critical need. H2H™ provides hospitals and healthcare settings with the ability to meet those needs, preventing days, weeks, and years of ongoing suffering.”
Established in 2017 by Dr. Eraina Schauss and colleagues from Counseling, Educational Psychology & Research, Public Health, Criminology, and Criminal Justice, the BRAIN Center Memphis (Building Resilience across Ages through Integrative Neuroscience) has become a nationally recognized center in pediatric mental health research and evidence-based treatment. The Center has been awarded over $2.4 million in extramural research funding in pediatric mental health and the center’s unique and pioneering partnership with Le Bonheur is what Schauss hopes will become a universal standard of care in hospitals nationwide.
The center is seeking additional universities and healthcare partners to expand H2H™ and fulfill the BRAIN Centers’ mission of establishing a new standard of care in pediatric trauma. Integrating behavioral healthcare can do so without incurring additional costs. It is a win-win situation.
To learn more about the BRAIN Center, H2H™, or to inquire about partnership opportunities, please visit https://braincentermemphis.org. “We hope that by raising awareness and providing a solution, we can help address the current pediatric mental health crisis in our communities and across our nation by providing access to mental healthcare to all children in need of services.”