SafeSpace Children’s Advocacy Center launching ‘Mind Body’ youth program

SafeSpace has chosen Dr. Lynne Frost to fill the role and make these critically needed services available to Gorge children and adolescents.

Recognizing the need for additional services to best serve children and adolescents, she said is excited to take her years of pediatric clinical expertise and system building capacity to launch the new SafeSpace Mind Body Youth Program. The program is planning to open this coming fall, seeking to prioritize care for youth with a history of trauma. Safe Space will be, accepting both internal and external referrals into the program. For more information, call 541-436-2960.

Frost is a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner with her doctorate in nursing practice from University of Portland. With more than 32 years of pediatric experience, she has been building systems of healthcare for children and adolescents over the past two decades, including the school-based health center located on Hood River Valley High School’s campus.

Integrating mental health services into medical care has been a part of her practice for many years. She is excited at this new director position to expand her reach and continue to build collaborative partnerships across the region to best serve our shared population.

Frost joined SafeSpace Child Advocacy Center in 2022 as a designated medical provider performing medical evaluations for children who may have been abused or neglected. Through community support and grants, SafeSpace has been able to purchase and fully remodel an 8,300 square foot facility located at 206 Wasco Loop in Hood River. The first floor is devoted to the child abuse advocacy center, with an entire second floor dedicated as a future home of our comprehensive mental health and substance use program serving individuals up to 21 years of age.

Providing care across a multitude of settings, Frost is well versed in identifying impacts mental health and substance use has on overall health of children and adolescents. As a commitment to providing current evidence-based treatments to youth, Frost has accepted an offer to attend Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to complete her psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner education to provide additional clinical support to the team of therapists and clinicians joining the center.

About SafeSpace

SafeSpace Children’s Advocacy Center of the Gorge, founded in 2009, has a mission to reduce trauma to child victims of abuse through collaborative evaluation and advocacy in a safe and healing environment. We are a single point of contact for Gorge child abuse victims and their families to get the help they need. Through coordinated support services that reduce further trauma and offer justice and hope, children and their families can begin their healing process.

With an increasing number of children in Gorge communities needing mental health support, consider joining SafeSpace on its journey to provide services. More information can be found at www.safespacecac.org.