Children’s Hospital plans for child abuse, human trafficking center with gift from Jessica Brandt

Not long after completing a multi-year, $300 million expansion, Children’s Hospital is again adding to its Uptown campus with plans for a child abuse and human trafficking center funded by Jessica Brandt, CEO of Ray Brandt Auto Group. 

The new center, a roughly 4,000-square-foot building, will house the hospital’s Audrey Hepburn Children at Risk Evaluation Center, where children are currently evaluated for abuse. It will also be a place where other child advocate organizations partnering with the hospital can meet.

Brandt gave $1.5 million for the facility, the largest individual gift in hospital history. The center will be called the Morgan Rae Center for Hope, named in memory of Brandt’s great-granddaughter.

Child abuse in Louisiana

Currently, Children’s Hospital sees about 1,300 kids yearly for child abuse and 150 for child trafficking. But many more could benefit from services.

In 2021, nearly 7,200 children were reported by the state as being abused, with almost half of those abused or neglected under the age of 2.

Sometimes abuse is obvious or reported by a child or parent. Other times, it requires a clinician skilled in interviewing patients and understanding the likelihood an injury was caused by an accident. Child abuse experts are trained to look for red flags, such as unexplained bruising or head trauma in infants, children with fractures that don’t have a good explanation, or conditions like genital warts in toddlers.

"We know that there are more kids out there who need our help but we are limited by space and the ability to expand services in our current facility,” said Lucio A. Fragoso, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital New Orleans.

One in 10 adults report abuse

It’s difficult to understand how many children experience abuse or trafficking because it often goes unreported.

Among adults, about 1 in 10 report having been abused as children nationwide, said Dr. Neha Mehta, medical director of the CARE Center. The center doesn’t see nearly 10% of the population of Louisiana’s kids. What they do see is “tip of the iceberg,” said Mehta.

“There’s a lot of it that goes unspoken,” said Mehta. ‘We’re only seeing the numbers of children reporting during childhood. Those numbers are much smaller.”

The new center will allow the hospital to treat about 2,000 kids each year and will staff both specialized doctors and care providers such as social workers, case managers and forensic interviewers. Currently, the CARE program serves children from 32 different parishes and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

It will also allow for one-on-one conversations that let doctors who specialize in abuse gain an understanding of injuries. Unlike a typical pediatrics appointment in which doctors try to quickly ascertain the reason for the visit, child abuse experts have to give young patients space and time.

“Because the importance of getting it accurate is so important in child abuse, we really have to take the time to help the child tell us in their own words what their experiences have been,” said Mehta.

From there, clinicians will evaluate whether the child is describing something that might have been accidental, something that might need intervention but does not meet the abuse threshold, or something that is actually an act of abuse.

The center will be located on the hospital’s Calhoun Street campus next to Audubon Park. Construction will begin in the spring of 2024 and finish in October. 

One of the most important parts of the center is simply its visibility, said Mehta. Understanding there is a place to seek help may encourage more families speak up about it, said Mehta.

“It's unlike other health conditions, where there's much less stigma in coming forward,” said Mehta.