The Meadows Institute’s Trauma and Grief Center continues national expansion

New partnership with Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah will support area children and families to heal after trauma and loss

By: Geoffrey Melada
April 6, 2026 

Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital announced a new partnership with the Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center at the Meadows Institute to strengthen care for children, becoming the first hospital in the western United States to join the TAG Network, a national consortium of children’s hospitals dedicated to best practice care in trauma and grief.  

Intermountain’s participation includes its three Primary Children’s Hospital campuses in Utah, which are located in Salt Lake City, Lehi, and Taylorsville. The TAG Network had previously included the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Manning Family Children’s in New Orleans, and the Meadows Institute in Houston as the network hub.   

From left: Heather Nesle, president, New York Life Foundation; Dr. Cristina Hudak-Rosander, behavioral health clinic manager at Safe and Healthy Families; Dr. Julie Kaplow, executive director of the Trauma and Grief Center at the Meadows Institute; and Janae Tafoya-Holbrook, senior project manager, Intermountain Health

The partnership comes as bereavement remains a significant issue, with approximately one in 15 children in Utah experiencing the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. 

According to executive director Dr. Julie Kaplow, the TAG Center at the Meadows Institute serves as the training hub for the network, providing ongoing support, consultation, and technical assistance in evidence-based assessment and intervention to network members for treatment of children experiencing trauma and loss. 

Becoming a TAG Network member “affirms Intermountain Children’s Health’s long-standing commitment to supporting children and families in navigating healing after trauma and loss,” said Dr.  Angelo P. Giardino, chair of the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and chief medical officer at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. “We look forward to our partnership with the TAG Center to continue to find ways that we can better support the children and families we serve in our community.” 

The TAG Center’s national expansion is made possible thanks to a generous investment from the New York Life Foundation.  

“The New York Life Foundation is proud to support the TAG Network and this inaugural partnership with Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital,” said Maria Collins, vice president of the New York Life Foundation. “The New York Life Foundation’s strategic, long-term investment in the Trauma and Grief Center and the TAG Network is enabling this significant milestone. We are proud to be behind an approach that can be replicated nationwide to strengthen how systems respond to trauma and loss, so no family navigates grief alone.”

Speaking at a March 31 press conference in the children’s play room at Primary Children’s in Salt Lake City, Kaplow described the urgent need for increased access to evidence-based care for trauma and grief as a significant public health issue. 

“We know that trauma and grief play a crucial role in predicting future mental and behavioral health problems,” Kaplow said, “but many children exposed to trauma and loss lack access to the care that they need, and all too often, parents and families don’t know where to turn for help, and many providers don’t have the necessary training to provide that help.” 

KUTV anchor Lincoln Graves interviews Dr. Kaplow live in studio March 31 

The new partnership with Primary Children’s is “more than just a program,” added Kaplow. “It’s a promise that no child in this region will have to face trauma or loss alone. They will now have multiple avenues for receiving exceptional trauma-and-grief-informed care through the entire hospital.”

 “I want to thank Primary Children’s for being an essential part of this work and helping us to build a network that we know will change lives for years to come.” 

To learn more about the TAG Center, visit https://mmhpi.org/work/trauma-grief-center/.