Child and adolescent psychiatry experts at UConn Health are launching a specialized clinical initiative backed by a $3 million federal award to expand trauma-informed mental health care for foster, adoptive, and kinship families across Connecticut.
The five-year funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will enable UConn Health to use its Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic to address systemic care gaps for children and caregivers in the child welfare system.
Nearly all children in foster and adoptive care have experienced maltreatment, family separation, or both, and many have faced multiple forms of trauma over the course of their lives,
says UConn Health clinical psychologist Damion Grasso. These experiences can affect emotional, behavioral, social, academic, and developmental functioning and, when left unaddressed, increase the risk for lifelong mental health and substance use problems.
Establishing the FACES Center
The grant establishes the UConn Health Foster-Adoptive Clinical and Enrichment Services (FACES) Center. Grasso will co-direct the initiative alongside faculty colleagues Carolyn Greene, Rocio Chang, David FitzGerald, and Julian Ford, all clinical psychologists specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry.
With this grant, SAMHSA has recognized the tremendous expertise of Dr. Grasso and others in our child psychology group in assessing and treating childhood trauma,
says Dr. David Steffens, chair of UConn Health’s Department of Psychiatry. This funding will enable the team to expand trauma-based care we provide to include services for those children and families involved in foster care and adoption not only in our area but across Connecticut.
State data cited by program leadership highlights the scope of the need. During fiscal 2025, Connecticut recorded nearly 2,900 children in foster care and more than 5,000 families raising children adopted through the child welfare system. Altogether, more than 8,000 children across the state reside in foster, kinship, adoptive, or pre- and post-adoptive households.
Research indicates that youth within the child welfare system face elevated vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder and other behavioral health concerns compared to their peers in the general population. These unresolved trauma-related challenges frequently drive placement instability. Grasso notes that more than one in four children experience three or more placements within their first year in care, disruptions that exacerbate trauma and hinder healthy attachment and development.
Addressing Barriers to Specialized Care
Families in the child welfare system frequently encounter significant hurdles, including lengthy waitlists, regional workforce shortages, and a scarcity of clinicians specifically trained in trauma, attachment, and foster-adoptive dynamics. While only a fraction of children in care currently receive necessary behavioral health interventions, caregivers simultaneously grapple with high stress levels and limited access to structured training and peer support.
To combat these systemic obstacles, the FACES Center aims to deliver a comprehensive suite of services over its five-year lifespan. Project goals include providing evidence-based screening, assessment, and treatment; offering targeted caregiver support and training; and strengthening workforce competencies across the state.
FACES will provide evidence-based screening, assessment, and treatment, caregiver support and training, and workforce development to address the effects of trauma, loss, and related mental health and substance use challenges,
Grasso says. Over the five-year project, FACES aims to serve more than 4,100 foster and adoptive children and their caregivers, train 900 foster and adoptive parents, and strengthen the trauma-informed competencies of more than 600 behavioral health and community providers across Connecticut.
Personal and Professional Stakes in Family Stability
For Grasso, the initiative carries deep personal resonance, shaped by experience both as a clinician and as a foster and adoptive parent. He points out that the profound disruption of early attachments fundamentally alters how children perceive themselves and the world around them.
What many people do not fully appreciate is how profoundly instability, neglect, abuse, loss, and disrupted attachments shape children’s lives,
Grasso says. These experiences do not simply contribute to mental health difficulties; they shape the way children come to see themselves, other people, and the world around them.
Research consistently shows that even one stable, supportive adult relationship can be among the most powerful protective factors in a child’s life,
Rocio Chang notes. Yet the systems we rely on to keep children safe often struggle to preserve the very relationships children need most.
UConn Health Tracks Outcomes to Expand Foster Family Support
As the FACES Center rolls out its programs, administrators will continuously track client volume and evaluate treatment outcomes across the state. Program leaders define ultimate success not merely by numerical benchmarks, but by whether struggling foster and adoptive families across Connecticut can readily access mental health resources to safeguard family stability.
UConn Health will begin integrating the new federal funding into its existing outpatient infrastructure, opening pathways for specialized clinician training and expanded community outreach throughout the five-year project window.
