Title:Georgetown opens new Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities

Amid an ongoing national mental health crisis affecting children, adolescents, and families, Georgetown is launching the Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities, a multidisciplinary academic center focusing on child and family mental health, disabilities, health equity, and digital health.

The new center builds on the work of two long-standing Georgetown programs: the Center for Child and Human Development—focused on the areas of early childhood, disability, and equity—and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, which provides clinical services and conducts clinical research and education in the areas of child, adolescent, and family mental health.

The Center for Child and Human Development has worked locally, nationally, and internationally for over 50 years to partner with families and communities to build and improve equitable systems of care that support young children and individuals across the lifespan with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry was established 15 years ago and has rapidly grown to bring mental health services to children, families, and communities across the capital region, with particular emphasis on developing partnerships to improve services for children and adolescents in underserved settings. Both entities also have a range of educational and research activities underway.

With Georgetown’s ethos of cura personalis, or care of the whole person, at its core, the new Thrive Center combines these existing programs and expands their efforts to include enhanced research programs in the areas of child and family mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, health equity, and digital health. The new Center will also develop new strategies to promote healthy mental development in young people through a range of offerings in clinical settings including exercise, meditation, healthy nutrition, and time spent in nature. Furthermore, the Thrive Center is developing an “accelerator” program for early-stage companies and non-profit organizations working to innovate in the areas of mental health and disability. This program is known as the Innovation Hub and will launch early in 2025.

“The goal of the Thrive Center is to advance community-engaged, family-centered systems of care along with the research and partnerships that will transform policies, practices, and perspectives on behalf of children and families everywhere,” explains the center’s director, Matthew Biel, M.D., MSc, the Marriott Chair of Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Biel is also chief of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

The center is a partnership between Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Health, made possible by a cohort of generous donors.

“All people deserve health and hope,” says Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., M.D., MHS, executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of the School of Medicine. “It is why health equity is a top priority. With the help of our trusted donors, we are now able to support the families in our local community with access to both clinical and preventive care through the new Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities.”

A values-based approach to uplifting children and families

“I think this Center could only exist at Georgetown,” says Biel. “It’s truly a values-driven enterprise,” rooted in:

• Service: “We want our work to be in service to young people and families everywhere, with a focus on equitable care and better outcomes for all.”
• Collaboration: “We’re very locally grounded. The relationships that we develop allow our work to really be driven by families themselves, by communities themselves. After all, they are the ones who best recognize their challenges and the paths that they want to follow towards healing.”
• Action: “There’s an average of a 17-year gap between the development of innovative approaches in research settings and the implementation of those approaches in ways that improve people’s lives. We are determined to close that gap.”

Delivering high-impact research, clinical interventions

“Matt Biel and his team bring unparalleled expertise to this space,” said Stephen R. T. Evans, M.D., executive vice president, medical affairs and chief medical officer of MedStar Health. “They are further supported by the partnership between MedStar Health and Georgetown University, which allows us to build a unique health system that bridges across all the communities we serve.”

The multidisciplinary center is able to do this life-changing work thanks to the support of MedStar Health and four major donors:

This generous philanthropy is enabling Georgetown to bring together experts in such specializations as psychiatry, pediatrics, family medicine, clinical psychology, developmental psychology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, special education, social work, law, disability studies, and public health.

“These gifts help us develop not only our clinical services, but also our research infrastructure around those clinical services,” shares Biel. “We will be able to consider ecological approaches to improving mental health and developmental disabilities—in other words, the whole child, not just the child as a cluster of mental health systems like depression, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, or difficulty concentrating.

“Our goal is to look at the entire spectrum of what helps people thrive across the lifespan, beginning in childhood,” Biel says. “That includes movement/exercise, quality sleep, good nutrition, time outside and time in nature. It also includes a healthy relationship with digital media and technology. And most importantly, it includes positive relationships with their parents, caregivers, and family members.”

Read more about the Clark Foundation’s investment in the Thrive Center >
Read more about the Holts’ gift to the Thrive Center >
Read more about the Marriott Foundation’s gift to the Thrive Center >
Read more about the Lambert Foundation’s gift to the Thrive Center >

Visit the website for Georgetown’s Thrive Center for Children, Families, and Communities >