The pediatric medical system performs life-saving miracles on children with life-threatning illnesses or injuries, yet very little is done to address the significant mental health impacts this traumatic experience has on young people and their families.

Up to 80% of ill or injured children and their families experience traumatic stress reactions following a life-saving intervention.

This experience can be significantly more complicated for families coping with issues of race, poverty, and/or prior traumatic experience.

Unchecked, medical trauma has real consequences not only for kids themselves but for their family members. For example, on average, mothers have a level of traumatic stress that is either on par with or 20% higher than that of their ill or injured child.

More than two decades of research and proven solutions exist. These solutions are rarely implemented and seldom reach families. By shifting the system to address this, we can significantly improve the medical and recovery experience for patients and families.

Alongside puts families at the center of this issue, as they best understand the urgency and need for change. By building, supporting, and activating a network of impacted families, we are creating a pathway to systemic change.

We are focused on creating an intentional shift in the medical and recovery process for families of kids with life-threatening illness or injury by engaging impacted families and the pediatric health system to facilitate the integration of proven mental health supports throughout the care process.

We leverage solutions from around the world, combining the best practices with Human Centered Design principles to build an approach that is research-based, family-centered, and equitable for all families.

We then partner with payers and pediatric hospitals to implement, evaluate, and train these proven solutions. We ensure that everyone at the bedside has the training required to normalize mental health interventions, mitigate traumatic experiences, and refer families to appropriate support — and that appropriate support is available to all families.

We envision a pediatric health system where appropriate mental health supports are embedded into the medical and recovery experiences for all families of kids with a life-threatening illness or injury.

Much like cardiac rehab following a heart attack, Alongside Network is normalizing mental health care as part of the medical and follow-up experience of having a life-saving pediatric intervention.