Trauma & Grief Center Joins The Hackett Center for Mental Health

The Hackett Center for Mental Health, the first regional center of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, announced it is now home to the Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center, which raises the standard of care and increases access to best practice care among youth who have experienced trauma and bereavement.

“I am incredibly excited that the Trauma and Grief Center has relocated to The Hackett Center for Mental Health,” said Hackett Center Executive Director Gary Blau, Ph.D. “Our missions to expand the use of evidence-based practices and improve the quality of mental health treatment are highly consistent, and together we will continue to make a difference in Greater Houston and the Gulf Coast Region, across Texas, and throughout the nation.”

Established in 2012 by Julie Kaplow, Ph.D., A.B.P.P., the TAG Center is a designated Treatment and Services Adaptation Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which provides expertise in trauma- and grief-informed care to other youth-serving organizations across the United States, including the Greater Houston area.

“By joining forces, we will be able to harness both the policy expertise of The Hackett Center and the trauma and bereavement expertise of the TAG Center to inform trauma- and grief-related best practices for years to come,” said Dr. Kaplow. “Our shared missions to ensure access to evidence-based mental health care, along with our shared compassion for youth facing adversity, creates a perfect synergy. I am honored and grateful to now be a part of the amazing Hackett Center team.”

The TAG Center has four primary aims:

• Develop and disseminate evidence-based assessment and interventions for youth who have experienced trauma and/or loss;
• 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-focused topics; and
• Translate trauma- and bereavement-informed best practices into policies designed to address the unmet needs of our most vulnerable youth.

“More than ever, the TAG Center’s expertise is needed as we face a growing population of children and young people experiencing bereavement and grief related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Andy Keller, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Meadows Institute. “The TAG Center is ideally positioned to provide support to THC’s existing partners, ensuring that more children who have been exposed to trauma and loss receive access to best practice care.”

Resources

With support from the New York Life Foundation, and in partnership with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Dr. Kaplow and her colleagues have developed a series of handouts for parents and caregivers to help support children facing bereavement, including in the context of the pandemic.

View these handouts and other information on the TAG Center Resources page.