Child Safety and Integrated Care

The Division of Child Safety and Integrated Care in the Department of Pediatrics at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston envisions a community where children are safe from all forms of preventable trauma and nurtured to their full potential. This Division advances that vision by educating providers and the public on how to readily prevent and identify child maltreatment; convening medical experts to collaborate with state agencies; and, when child maltreatment does occur, providing high-quality comprehensive medical and psychosocial services to victims and children living in foster care. Our approach emphasizes evidence-based clinical practice, research, and education of future providers.

One of the newer pediatric divisions, Child Safety was conceptualized by Dr. Rebecca Girardet in 2005 to care for inpatient maltreatment victims and provide outpatient clinical services to high-risk families. This child-protection focus continues today, but with a larger, more robust team able to offer expanded services not readily available in standard clinics as well as an ACGME-accredited fellowship program to train the next generation of child well-being champions. Four out of our seven current faculty, including Fellowship Director and Assistant Professor Simi Abraham, MD, are graduates of our UTHealth Houston fellowship program.

The Division’s seven faculty, two social workers and one nurse practitioner offer inpatient consultations at Level I Trauma Center Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, provide comprehensive outpatient care through UT Physicians, and have developed specialized clinics and programs for additional support:

• Forensic Assessment Center Network (FACN), a statewide coordinated group of child-abuse pediatricians that provides medical expertise for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
• The Child and Adolescent Resource and Education (CARE) Clinic
• Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) led by a licensed social worker
• Active participants in Child Abuse Prevention and Education (CAPE) Day that enhances frontline providers’ knowledge of trauma and adverse childhood experiences

Child Safety and Integrated Care faculty are known for excellence in education and advocacy. They work collaboratively with other divisions and institutions to improve quality of care, such as leading in the Population Health Initiative and this team’s consistent involvement in Advocacy Day at the Capitol each spring. In addition to providing compassionate clinical care, this team dreams big and thinks creatively to turn their vision into reality one day at a time.