- Primary Children's Hospital is joining the Trauma and Grief Network to enhance child bereavement care.
- A mom whose son died talked about how these services could have helped her provide comfort for her sons.
SALT LAKE CITY — Janae Tafoya-Holbrook's family was dealing with grief long before the death of her 12-year-old son.
Her son was born early and lived with medical complications his whole life. She wasn't just dealing with her own grief but searching for ways to support her children. She said she didn't know what experiences were normal for them or how to find them help.
In one year, her son spent 215 days in the hospital.
"That meant living between hospital and home, caring for children in both places, and holding our lives together, piece by piece, like an intense game of Jenga," Tafoya-Holbrook said.
The Trauma and Grief Center at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute in Dallas, Texas, is seeking to address needs like her family's by creating a Trauma and Grief Network joined recently by Primary Children's Hospital.
Dustin Lipson, president of Primary Children's Hospital, said adding these services will fill "a critical gap in our community."
"Incorporating evidence-based therapy developed specifically for grief will allow Intermountain therapists to better support children experiencing loss," he said.
Some days, Tafoya-Holbrook's boys were withdrawn, and they struggled to acknowledge feelings they didn't have words to describe. She said care providers' efforts to improve trauma and grief care matters deeply to families like hers.
"My hope with this network is that families like mine feel less alone, more connected and more supported by meeting them where they are. Because at the end of the day, no family should have to carry this burden alone," she said.
Julie Kaplow, executive director of the grief center at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, thanked Intermountain Health for recognizing the need to improve trauma and grief services and stepping up to fill it. She said two-thirds of children experience some trauma, and the biggest problems in society often tie back to unresolved childhood trauma.
"This is not just a mental health issue, but this is a significant public health issue," she said.
Addressing bereavement in children is a relatively new field, Kaplow said, but is present in each corner of a children's hospital.
"We want to ensure that there is no wrong door. That wherever a child enters the system, they will receive timely, effective and compassionate care," Kaplow said.
She said they have affiliates already in Michigan and Louisiana, but Primary Children's Hospital is the first affiliate in the western United States.
"This partnership with Primary Children's is more than just a program, it's a promise. A promise that no child in this region will have to face trauma or loss alone, and they will now have multiple avenues for receiving exceptional trauma and grief informed care," she said.
Shelby Lofton, KSLCristina Hudak-Rosander, behavioral health manager of the Intermountain Safe & Healthy Families Clinic, said the partnership will improve the services of what is already one of few children's hospitals with a grief clinic on site.
"Primary Children's Hospital's decision to join the Trauma and Grief Network is built on a foundation of a long-standing dedication to providing both trauma and bereavement informed care," she said.
Hudak-Rosander said Primary Children's Hospital already provides support on the day of a death, ongoing support to patients, and grief groups and camps. The collaboration will add an evidence-based treatment designed specifically for grief in children.
"While evidence-based treatments for trauma can be adapted to address grief in children, these interventions are most helpful when the primary response to a loved one's death is fear. But children who are grieving often experience other emotions and thoughts beyond fear as they are trying to come to terms with how they will navigate their world without their loved one in it," she explained.
She said 1 in 15 children will experience the death of a parent by the time they are 18 — averaging one or two children in each classroom.
Since beginning the collaboration, Hudak-Rosander said 55 therapists have participated in training on multidimensional grief therapy. Trainings are continuing to help providers and staff at Primary Children's Hospital recognize children who need trauma and grief support.
"It's not just an initiative taken on by one department or one service line," she said.
Heather Nesle, president of the New York Life Foundation, the philanthropic arm of New York Life Insurance, which is funding the Trauma and Grief Network, said they learned families go to hospitals in a crisis. She said the foundation is guided by a goal to make sure no child or family grieves alone.
"Efforts like this really reflect what's possible when systems are aligned to help families, and adding the Primary Children's Hospital to this network is critical to reach them where they are and when they need help," she said.
Nesle has already worked with leaders in Utah to help identify children in need of grief services. Granite School District added a voluntary question on forms about whether a child has lost someone to allow schools to offer support, and the state added a spot on a death certificate to mark if the person is leaving behind a child.
