NEWS

UNC-CH, Duke, Central pool expertise, open state-wide child protection center

By CAROL HENDERSON
UNC-CH News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- A unique new treatment center for North Carolina's abused and neglected children has opened its doors in Durham thanks to a collaborative effort involving Duke University, N.C. Central University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

The Center for Child and Family Health--North Carolina, located in the Prudential Securities building across U.S. 15-501 from Durham's South Square Mall, draws on the faculty, staff and resources of the three universities to provide a full range of medical, mental health, legal and family support services for children from across the state. Dedication ceremonies are being planned for sometime this spring.

"By combining the strengths of the three universities with the wealth of expertise in public and private agencies throughout the Triangle area, we have created a one-of-a-kind facility in the country," said Matt Epstein, the center's executive director. "And it's all under one roof."

Besides conference rooms, the center provides space for social workers, psychologists, law students and trauma therapists. It also houses the N.C. Central Family Law Clinic, pediatric offices for doctors from UNC-CH and Duke who specialize in child abuse, interview rooms with video cameras and child-friendly waiting areas filled with toys.

"We've moved our childhood trauma treatment program from Duke over to the center," said Lisa Amaya-Jackson, assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke and director of the center's mental health programming. "We didn't take an old program and put it in a new place. We've created a new entity."

With the mental health department housed right down the hall from pediatricians and social workers, Amaya-Jackson said, center staff doesn't have to make endless phone calls, set up redundant interviews and put kids on waiting lists for services offered elsewhere.

"In one visit, children and their families can see pediatricians, therapists, lawyers, and social service specialists," she said.

N.C. Central offers training in family law for students at all three universities, as well as child protection education for judges, attorneys and law enforcement officials.

"We will also help families navigate their way through the legal system with as little trauma as possible," said Cheryl Amana, an NCCU law professor in charge of organizing the center's legal and family support services. "By working in abuse and neglect prevention, we hope to help people avoid the legal system altogether."

The center was the brainchild of Dr. Thomas E. Frothingham, professor emeritus at Duke, and his UNC-CH counterpart, Dr. Desmond Runyan. Both are pediatricians specializing in abuse and neglect cases.

"For years, Tom and I would get together and commiserate about how difficult it was to provide adequate services to kids and how we wished we could pool our resources and have better follow-up on our patients," Runyan said. "It was all pie-in-the-sky talk until the Durham-Orange Medical Society approached us and offered to help."

A financial commitment from the society prompted discussions and meetings with concerned community members. From there, the doctors worked with the universities to make the center a reality. The nearly $1.5 million yearly budget will come from the universities, local organizations and patient fees.

Besides seeing 1,500 children a year, center staff will offer research opportunities and training programs for students, as well as agencies and community groups around the state.

In the last decade, reported cases of child abuse have doubled in North Carolina. "Part of what we need to do at the center is to figure out why children are being abused and find ways to help families, neighborhoods, and communities foster more supportive and caring environments for children," Runyan said.

Epstein agreed. "Unfortunately, children are falling through the cracks," he said. "At the center we have an opportunity to turn that around."

Note: For more information, call Epstein at the center (919) 419-3474.

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Contact: David Williamson