JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A city-funded resource aimed at providing immediate assistance to children and teens who experience traumatic events, or who may be in crisis, is now available in the city of Jacksonville.
In October, Northwest Behavioral Health Services Inc. launched the Trauma Crisis Hotline.
Earlier this year, Action News Jax reported about Northwest Behavioral’s trauma response team for minors who witness homicides and suicides. The response team was launched with a $10,000 grant from the Kids Hope Alliance.
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The team made its first response call in December 2018.
Northwest Behavioral has now expanded the use of the KHA grant to include the trauma hotline for children and teens, clinical supervisor Waynetta Kirtsey said.
“The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to any teen or adolescent and their families that feels that there’s a trauma,” she said.
Kirtsey tells us community violence, school bullying, home break-ins, natural disasters, car accidents or the death of a loved one, are just a few examples of the types of events that may be traumatic for children and teens.
According to a program pamphlet, calls are answered by trauma professionals who provide supportive crisis intervention, screening and assessment to any minor, and their family, experiencing an emotional disturbance or interpersonal crisis.
“The premise of the hotline is to deescalate the trauma that the child, or the adolescent, or the teen feels,” Kirtsey said.
If trauma professionals are unable to deescalate an emotional disturbance or interpersonal crisis by phone, they’ll respond to a family’s home, or wherever the child may be, within an hour, Kirtsey said.
“We want to provide face-to-face services within 60 minutes of the actual call,” said Kirtsey.
Local grandfather Will Wheeler tells Action News Jax the hotline could be a valuable tool for children and teens who may be suffering.
“I think anything that our city, or any city, can do to support families and children, and especially in cases of trauma, or emergency, I think it’s a good thing,” Wheeler said.
Children, teens and parents may call the hotline free of charge at 1-833-987-2862 (1-833-9TRAUMA). While minors can reach out, parents must give permission for children and teens to have access to the trauma services.
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