School Crisis and Bereavement
In the aftermath of two recent school crises -- the shootings at Virginia Tech and the Ohio-based college baseball team's tragic bus accident in Atlanta, GA -- students, staff and families may need support to deal with their loss.
The National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center includes a 10-member professional advisory board consisting of national leaders in school crisis and bereavement who provide technical assistance and consultation services throughout the United States.
Services include the development and dissemination of school-based bereavement support services; helping to link efforts nationally to enhance bereavement and trauma-related services in schools; and serving as a resource for school systems, communities and children's groups for information, training materials, consultation and technical assistance.
David Schonfeld, MD, director of the Center and director of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's, knows that "whether it is from natural disasters, terrorism, community violence, school violence, or the many personal crises that students often bring to school, crisis in the life of a child can have profound negative effects on mental health and learning." Dr. Schonfeld has a long history of helping children and schools in crisis.
From December 2001 to June 2004, Dr. Schonfeld served as consultant to the New York City Department of Education, helping to coordinate training of crisis teams in the city's schools following the events of September 11.
In addition, he helped develop educational materials for school administrators, teachers and parents on teaching and talking with children about September 11 and conducted workshops for the New York City Department of Education on approaches to promote coping and resiliency in children in school settings. He served on the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Terrorism from 2001-2004.
Dr. Schonfeld came to Cincinnati Children's in 2005 from Yale University, where he continues as professor adjunct of pediatrics.
While at Yale, Dr. Schonfeld established the School Crisis Response Program, which developed an organizational model for school crisis preparedness that was adopted by many schools, including New York City public schools. The program has trained tens of thousands of school-related personnel throughout the world and has provided assistance during the aftermath of hundreds of school crisis events.
Dr. Schonfeld has written many articles, book chapters and a handbook on school crisis preparedness and has written and spoken extensively on the topic of pediatric bereavement. He is president of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
