Removing Roadblocks to
Trauma-Based Care
New DMV-based nonprofit focuses on children and families
seeking mental health services
H igh costs no longer need to be a
roadblock to families in search of
trauma-based care.

TRUE Center, a nonprofit providing inter-
vention and prevention services for children,
will offer affordable mental health services,
as well as education and training to commu-
nity members and professionals.

“It has felt like there’s such a dispar-
ity,” says Stephanie Wolf, a psychologist
who started the nonprofit with four other
mental health professionals she con-
nected with during clinical work at a child
advocacy center.

They noticed in their work that families
were discontinuing treatment because they
could not afford it, could not make sched-
uled appointment times or had needs that
went beyond one type of trauma.

“Many kids, especially underserved kids,
tend to have multiple traumas,” Wolf says.

“And the more traumas they have, and the
more—what we call adverse experiences
—they have, then the worse the outcomes
are. Not being able to address all of them
to avoid children slipping through the cracks
while also making the same services acces-
sible to all.

At one point, almost half of the chil-
dren in Washington, D.C. had experienced
trauma—47.1%, according to survey results
from the National Survey of Children’s
Health released in 2016.

Although the numbers have gone down
since then—they were at 38.8% in the 2019-
2020 survey results—they are still high.

The model used at TRUE involves
sliding-scale fees based on families’
current financial situations and gross house-
hold incomes.

Renee DeBoard-Lucas, a psychologist and
another founder of TRUE Center, encour-
ages families to pay a small amount—even
$5. Research shows that investment keeps
Stephanie Wolf
patients coming back.

But no one will be turned away if they
can’t pay anything—and no one will be
together is a real disadvantage.”
TRUE—which stands for Trauma, turned away for making too much either,
Resilience, Understanding and Education— she explains.

“The idea is that people who don’t have
will address trauma more broadly, seeking
2 Washington FAMILY SEPTEMBER 2022
THITAREESARMKASAT / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS
CO-FOUNDER PHOTOS: PROVIDED
BY LINDSAY C. VANASDALAN