May 25, 2022

As President & CEO Mark A. Wallace shared earlier today, many of us are struggling with anger, grief and sadness as we process the events that happened in Uvalde, Texas. Please know that these feelings are normal and expected in the wake of such a traumatic incident.

As you connect with your personal resources of friends, family, and spiritual support to cope with what transpired, please also remember Texas Children’s is here to help. As One Amazing Team, we always come together to help each other during times of grief and healing. Should you need assistance, please lean on each other. In addition, here are resources available to you:

  • Candlelight vigil: For the next 24 hours, there will be candlelight vigils in our chapels and an opportunity to place messages and prayers on the Tree of Hope.
  • Chaplain services: The Chaplains and Employee Assistance Program will host four memorial services at each of our campuses. Times are still being determined. Please check back as details become available.
  • Employee Assistance Program:
    • For our TCH employees, please click here for multiple resources to support you during this time, including confidential counseling, stress management services and support systems for managing grief.
    • For our Baylor partners, please contact Baylor EAP Contact at 713-500-3008
  • Additional resources: Our EAP Plus partners offer these additional resources, including this website, which provides information on how to cope with traumatic events. In addition, this guide contains other useful information.

Please take care of yourselves and each other. There will be more information regarding additional support services and ways to support the people of Uvalde in an upcoming global email.

December 2, 2019

On November 14, hundreds of Texas Children’s Hospital friends and supporters gathered at the Westin Galleria Hotel for this year’s The Forum Luncheon, which highlighted the astounding work of the Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center at Texas Children’s.

The program was emceed by Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark Kline and featured Dr. Julie Kaplow, the TAG Center’s founding director and the Shannon and Mark A. Wallace Chair in Pediatric Behavioral Health, who spoke about the challenges created by trauma and grief in the lives of children and the community, and about the TAG Center’s efforts to meet those challenges head on.

Trauma- and grief-informed care

The TAG Center at Texas Children’s uses evidence-based practice to provide care for patients, from 7 to 21 years old, and their families who have experienced trauma or grief. Under Kaplow’s leadership, the center uses a scientist-practitioner model with three primary aims:

  • Provide evidence-based assessments and interventions for youth who have experienced traumas and/or losses
  • Conduct research on adaptive and maladaptive responses to trauma and loss, as well as treatment effectiveness
  • Provide training and professional education in trauma- and grief-informed assessment and interventions using best-practice teaching methods

The TAG Center’s impact on the community was immediate. Less than a month after Kaplow started at Texas Children’s in 2017, Houston experienced Hurricane Harvey, one of the most devastating storms in the nation’s history. To help support the most vulnerable populations, and to serve the mental health needs of children affected by the hurricane and flooding, the TAG Center launched the Harvey Resiliency and Recovery Program. Another of the program’s primary goals was to equip the community to provide the same services, primarily in schools.

The TAG Center increased access to in-house services by partnering with Lyft to bring families to the hospital and by paying for parking. Generous philanthropy also made it possible to deploy mental health clinicians on one of Texas Children’s Mobile Clinics, making much-needed mental health care available to many immigrant families in areas of Houston where they otherwise would not have had access.

In the two year’s since Harvey, the storm’s affects are still being felt and the TAG Center is now seeing more children exhibiting mental health symptoms that require treatment.

Nine short months after Harvey, Greater Houston was struck with another horrible tragedy – The Santa Fe school shooting.

In the immediate aftermath, the TAG team went out and provided immediate support for students and teachers, which included education about the symptoms people might be experiencing, normalizing those symptoms, and helping identify children who might be in need of a higher level of care. The center also held community meetings to educate people about possible triggers of trauma and loss in the weeks and months following.

In a commitment to the long-term recovery from this devastating tragedy, the TAG Center partnered with other organizations to launch the Santa Fe Resiliency Center. There are now four TAG Center clinicians providing trauma- and grief-informed assessment and treatment to the many students, teachers and families who continue to need help.

One of those students – 17-year-old Reagan Gaona – was present at the event and spoke to the audience about her experience of losing her boyfriend in the shooting and the terrible pain, depression and anxiety that followed. It was after meeting with Marisa Nowitz, a TAG Center clinician, that Reagan was able to begin coping. She began to use writing as a tool to let her feelings out and to help remember memories of her boyfriend. Other exercises, she said, helped her deal with anger and to appreciate things in life more.

“If it weren’t for the TAG Center, I don’t know where I’d be,” Reagan said. “I really hope that after today, people will see what the TAG Center is capable of doing for people like me and why it’s so important. If it weren’t for the TAG Center and Marisa coming to Santa Fe, I don’t know where I’d be.”

Learn more about the Trauma and Grief Center at Texas Children’s.

January 28, 2019

 

Director of Texas Children’s Trauma and Grief Center Dr. Julie Kaplow was recently named Chief of Psychology.

Kaplow, who also serves as head of psychology in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, is an expert in childhood trauma and bereavement. As director of the Trauma and Grief Center, a SAMHSA-funded Treatment and Service Adaptation Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Kaplow oversees evidence-based assessment, treatment and research with youth and families exposed to traumas and/or losses, and develops and disseminates trauma- and bereavement-informed “best practices” to community providers nationwide.

A strong proponent of a scientist-practitioner approach, Kaplow’s primary research interests focus on the biological, behavioral and psychological consequences of childhood trauma and bereavement, with an emphasis on therapeutically modifiable factors that can be used to inform psychosocial interventions. Kaplow’s ongoing studies examine the effectiveness of treatments for various populations of youth including those with a history of trauma, youth exposed to traumatic bereavement, and youth anticipating the death of a loved one.

Shortly after joining Texas Children’s, Kaplow helped launch the Harvey Resiliency and Recovery Program, dedicated to serving the needs of the many children and families adversely affected by the storm and its aftermath. She was also integral in the creation of the Santa Fe Strong Resiliency Center, along with the Gulf Coast Center and others in the Santa Fe community, to provide mental health services to those impacted by the shooting. These efforts have been made possible by the generous support of the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, New York Life Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Rebuild Texas Fund, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Children’s Health Fund, and the JPB Foundation. Additional funding for the Santa Fe Strong Resiliency Center was provided by the Victims of Crime Act.

Kaplow is also actively engaged in community-based participatory research. She leads a practice-research network of sites across the country (including community clinics, grief support organizations, schools and academic medical centers) that use “common denominator” theory, assessment tools and interventions to address the unique needs and strengths of bereaved youth and families.

Kaplow earned her Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from Duke University in 2002. She completed her internship at Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in childhood trauma at Boston Medical Center. She is board-certified by the American Board of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology.

To learn more visit texaschildrens.org/departments/psychology.

October 8, 2018

Time is something every grieving parent wishes they had more of when saying goodbye to their child. Katie and Phillip Hurlbut would have loved to have had more time with their daughter Ella Grace, who passed away seven weeks after birth due to complications from an infection in September 2015.

“We felt rushed after she passed away,” said Katie, who is a nurse practitioner at Texas Children’s Pediatrics Humble Fall Creek. “We had very little time for our family to come and say goodbye to her.”

To extend the narrow window of time families have with a lost loved one, the Hurlbuts recently donated two Caring Cradles in Ella’s memory – one to the Women’s Specialty Unit at the Pavilion for Women and the other to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

The cradles use a cooling blanket to cool the baby’s body, which prevents any distressing physical changes and lengthens the preservation of the child by 24 to 48 hours. The cradles can be positioned in a private setting so that families not only have more time with their baby but can say goodbye in a private, dignified way.

“After we lost Ella, feeling her body change was one of the most upsetting things for me. Those changes made me realize how quickly she was slipping away from me,” Katie said. “As a grieving mother, I struggled knowing I only had a short amount of time to create memories with her. It’s our prayer for these Caring Cradles to give the gift of time to grieving families.”

Jenni Fair, patient care manager in the NICU at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center campus, said the cradles are especially helpful to mothers who might have been ill during delivery and unable to spend time with their child immediately after birth.

“Some mothers are literally physically unable to mourn the death of their child for a day or so until they are doing better themselves,” Fair said. “The cradles are very helpful in these situations.”

The Hurlbut’s donation of the Caring Cradles came a little more than a year after the grand opening of the Butterfly Bereavement Room at the Pavilion for Women. Devoid of medical equipment, the Butterfly Room is a nicely decorated nursery where families can separate themselves from the hospital setting and mourn privately. When they leave the room, families can take a purple bag filled with things such as a bereavement gown for their baby, a blanket and a book.

The Butterfly Bereavement Room also was an initiative spearheaded by the Hurlbuts.

“Our goal is to bring peace and comfort to other families going through the same painful experience we did – losing a baby,” Katie said. “We’re very thankful for the opportunity to turn something so tragic into something good. Ella’s life will continue to impact grieving families in a positive way for many years to come.”

December 23, 2014

122414grief640

Five years ago, Priscilla Boos heard the worst news she could ever imagine – her husband had been given six months to a year to live.

“I was devastated,” said Boos, who is a business manager in the Department of Pathology. “I started grieving the loss of my husband of 39 years that day.”

To deal with her feelings and to try and prepare for when her husband really was gone, Boos said she attended the Texas Children’s Employee Assistance Program’s Grief Recovery Group.

The free 10-week program is dedicated to helping people find the support they need to move beyond grief, whether it’s over the loss of a loved one, a divorce or a situation at work. Facilitated by EAP staff and open to all Texas Children’s and Baylor employees, the program follows specific tasks outlined in The Grief Recovery Handbook by John James and Russel Friedman.

“Recovery from loss is accomplished by discovering and completing all of the undelivered communications that accrue in relationships,” said EAP Program Manager Brent Lo-Caste-Wilken. “If you have experienced one or more losses, and you wish to move beyond the pain, this program offers you the probability of a richer and more rewarding life.”

Boos said the group made a huge difference in her life and that it made the journey toward her husband’s death much easier to bare.

“When it was time for him to go, we talked about a lot of things most couples don’t talk about during that time,” she said. “We wouldn’t have been able to have had that conversation had I attended the Grief Support Group.”

Most people don’t get the opportunity to complete unfinished conversations like Boos did because their loved is already gone or their loss has already occurred. Grief recovery helps people who are both anticipating a loss as well as suffering the effects of a loss that has already happened. In short, it helps people complete anything that was left unfinished at the time of a loss.

“Successful completion of unfinished emotions allows us to become complete with the often painful reality that the physical relationship has ended,” James and Friedman said.

To sign up for the next session of the Grief Recovery Group see below. Space is limited, so don’t delay.

What do I need to know if I am interested in participating in the Grief Recovery Group?

  • For the safety and success of all participants, commitment to and attendance at the 10-week program are essential.
  • Group sessions will be held in the Meyer Building first-floor conference room from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. every
  • Thursday beginning January 22 and ending March 26.

To register for the program go to the Learning Academy webpage, call Ext. 4-3327 or email eap@texaschildrens.org.