The statistics virtually jump off the page.
More than half the children in New Orleans have lost a loved one to violence. As a result, the city’s childhood PTSD rate is four times higher than the national average.
“Kids in New Orleans want to achieve, but how can they be expected to sit in a classroom and learn when they are living with chronic and persistence traumatic stress?” said Chelsea Moore, clinical social worker and program director of ThriveKids from Manning Family Children’s.
This reality is a big part of the hospital’s extensive behavioral health care strategy. In addition to a 51-bed inpatient behavioral health center, the hospital is heavily integrated with the region’s schools, which leads to earlier intervention and better outcomes.
“That's where kids spend most of their day, so you're able to see who is struggling or having a hard time making friends,” Moore said. “The power of the program is bringing the expertise and resources of Manning Family Children’s directly into a school. We're able to help these kids right away before they decompensate.”
Nearly 4,000 children accessed the program’s individual counseling sessions during the 2023-2024 school year. The ThriveKids behavioral health team includes doctors, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and therapists who can diagnose student needs and prescribe medication or offer therapy. School-based therapists and more traditional outpatient behavioral health services accommodate each child’s particular needs. And while the ThriveKids team is readily accessible to all school nurses, the program embeds dedicated counselors in about 20 schools with the most pressing need for behavioral health care.
The right care at the right time
The hospital was also one of seven sites in the country to receive a federal grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The grant supports the hospital’s tailored strategic efforts with community partnerships. Some of these include:
- Convening a collaborative group of community stakeholders and youth with lived experience to prevent revictimization and reduce traumatic stress reactions for children exposed to violence.
- Expanding staff with the addition of a community outreach specialist focused on the hospital’s target population, a school-based mental health professional in a high-needs public school, and a multilingual therapist.
- Partnering with the city’s Juvenile Justice Intervention Center (JJIC) and the hospital’s trauma team to keep children connected to health services and successfully reengage in school after they are discharged.
“Our goal is to provide the right care at the right time, ensuring coordinated and consistent care in the community, in schools, and in the hospital or clinic,” Moore said.
All these interventions have led to more than 10,000 school-based therapy sessions and over 1,500 students being connected to health services they previously struggled to obtain like psychiatry, primary care, and ophthalmology. Recent screener data indicates a positive trend in mental health outcomes, reflecting the effectiveness of the program’s interventions.
Keys to success
Moore said coordinating care is crucial to the program’s success. This involves arranging specialist appointments, securing transportation, and managing other essential logistics to ensure children reach their providers. It also means making sure families, medical teams, behavioral health specialists, and school nurses are fully aligned.
An example of this collaboration involved a high-school student who arrived at the hospital’s trauma unit after being shot by her stepfather. While the medical team treated her injuries, behavioral health providers counseled her, her mother, and her two siblings. Meanwhile, care coordinators scheduled follow-up appointments and arranged transportation. Even after her return to school, the ThriveKids team continued therapy for her and her siblings, maintaining a seamless continuum of care.
“It’s probably going to be a lifelong journey to overcome everything they've gone through,” said Lou Fragoso, president and chief executive officer for Manning Family Children’s. “But from that one incident to be able to follow them from the hospital to school and encompass them with these services is really powerful.”
