Supporting Families Through Connection and Research: An Interview with Dr. Courtney M. Holmes

This month, we spoke with Dr. Courtney M. Holmes, Ph.D., LPC, LMFT, CRC, NCC, a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Counseling at VCU. Dr. Holmes provided insight into her recent project funded by the VCU Quest Grant, which focuses on addressing the needs of families and caregivers of children with complex medical conditions.

A Quest to Support Families

When asked about the grant, Dr. Holmes explained its purpose:

“Our grant is through the Quest Fund at VCU. The goal of the VCU Quest Grant is to afford all faculty an internal funding opportunity to support new, emerging, or continuing research. Our project is a needs assessment, or an opportunity to hear from parents and caregivers about their experiences and desires for future interventions or programming.

Ultimately, we hope to include mental health support for families and caregivers within the complex care clinic – so this project is a way to find out what would be useful and accessible for families.”

The Importance of a Presence in the CCC

Dr. Holmes highlighted the need to establish mental health support within the Complex Care Clinic (CCC) at The Children’s Hospital at Richmond at VCU:

“Families with children with complex medical conditions are incredibly strong and resilient, but they also face a lot of chronic stressors. Accessing mental health support can be difficult when you don’t have time off, childcare, or financial resources – also finding a provider with sufficient context to your situation can feel difficult. Feeling like you must explain the circumstances of your family to a provider over and over can be exhausting. Mental health support within the CCC would help take those types of burdens off families, making it easier to get the help and connection families need.”

Understanding the Unique Needs of CCC Families

Dr. Holmes explained how the needs of CCC families differ from others:

“Caring for a child with chronic and complex medical issues has specific and unique aspects. In lots of families in the CCC, parents and caregivers also become home health care for their child, and this changes a lot of family functioning aspects within the family. Families in the CCC may spend long periods of time in the hospital, which disrupts day-to-day family patterns. They may also spend a lot of time related to medical caregiving such as making and going to specialist appointments, giving treatments at home, and managing other health care needs. This can be really hard (emotionally, physically, logistically) on parents that are trying to work, parent, take care of self and have adult relationships!

Also, it can be isolating to be the parent of a child with CMC – sometimes other friends or family members may not understand all the ins and outs of the chronic stressors or daily struggles and understand how to be helpful or how to provide assistance in times of crisis or with the ongoing challenges that daily life can bring.”

Celebrating Resilience and Community

Despite the challenges, Dr. Holmes emphasized the resilience and sense of community among CCC families:

“What we have heard so much about in our work is the resiliency of CCC families to have hope, come together, and find beauty in small moments. Also, there is so much power in finding a community that understands and supports you; families with CMC are motivated to support one another and build community that helps families feel like they belong and are supported.”

Through her work, Dr. Holmes continues to empower families, fostering a sense of hope and belonging while addressing critical needs. The VCU Quest Grant project serves as a vital step toward integrating mental health support into the CCC and making it accessible for all families.

Dr. Holmes is a trusted advisor to Better2gether, and we value her partnership as we continue to focus on ways to improve access to self-care support for caregivers and address the mental health needs of parents and families.