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Rene McClatchey, Ph.D. - Kennesaw State University. Kennesaw, GA, UNITED STATES

Rene McClatchey, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Social Work and Human Services | Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, GA, UNITED STATES

Rene Searles McClatchey, LCSW, is the director of the Master of Social Work program at Kennesaw State.

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Biography

Rene Searles McClatchey, LCSW, graduated from the University of Lund in Sweden, with a degree in Foreign Languages. She received her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Social Work from the University of Georgia.

After an extensive sojourn in hospice, McClatchey developed children’s bereavement groups and grief camps, and designed new treatment tools for work with children experiencing grief. She left the clinical arena in 2003 to further her knowledge about children and grief through studies and research.

McClatchey has presented both statewide and nationally at workshops and conferences on children and grief and was interviewed on national television as an expert on children and grief.

She currently serves as an associate professor at Kennesaw State University and is the director of the MSW program at KSU. She was instrumental in forming the Georgia Society for Clinical Oncology Social Work, now named SWOG. She is the Founder and Director of Camp MAGIK and a published author of research on children and grief.

Industry Expertise (4)

Education/Learning

Research

Writing and Editing

Mental Health Care

Areas of Expertise (2)

Foreign Languages

Social Work

Accomplishments (1)

The Swedish Excellence Award 2015 (personal)

This award will be given to a person or company with Swedish connections that has bettered our community.

Education (3)

University of Georgia: Ph.D., Social Work

University of Georgia: M.A., Social Work

Lund University: B.A., Foreign Languages

Affiliations (1)

  • Camp MAGIK : Founder and Director

Media Appearances (5)

Turning Grieving Youths Into Happier Campers

Pacific Standard  

2008-05-27

Roughly 4 percent of American children experience the death of a parent before age 15. They often struggle to cope with their loss — and as many as one-third of bereaved children suffer from major depression for a year afterward. For children grieving lost loved ones, Rene Searles McClatchey offers a surprisingly effective treatment: summer camp.

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Treating PTSD Helps Kids Deal With Loss

HealthDay News, ABC News, Washington Post  online

2008-04-22

Children who experience the unexpected death of a parent after a long illness can suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a finding that has major implications for helping children deal with grief, say University of Georgia (UGA) researchers. "Often children who have lost a parent are given grief therapy, and we've found that grief therapy doesn't help if you don't take care of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms first," study author Rene Searles McClatchey, an adjunct professor in the UGA School of Social Work, said in a prepared statement. In a study of 100 children, the researchers investigated the effectiveness of a weekend camp that blends traditional activities such as hiking and canoeing with therapy for grief and PTSD. McClatchey is founder and director of the Camp Magik, a nonprofit organization.

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Camp with a special focus gives comfort and fun to grieving children

Georgia Health News  

2014-04-16

Weekend sleepover camps for children can be about more than crafts and canoeing. During the past two decades, Rene McClatchey has helped hundreds of grieving youngsters recover from devastating losses.

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PTSD Among Children

Psych Central  

2008-04-09

Although PTSD is commonly associated with victims of major trauma and those who witness violence, a new study finds that it also can affect children who have lost a parent to diseases such as cancer. The University of Georgia study is scheduled to be published in the May issue of the journal Research on Social Work Practice. The discover has major implications for helping children cope with grief, says lead author Rene Searles McClatchey.

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Study: Treating post-traumatic stress first helps children overcome grief

UGA Today  print

2008-04-08

Post traumatic stress disorder is commonly thought to affect victims of major trauma and those who witness violence, but a new University of Georgia study finds that it also can affect children who have lost a parent expectedly to diseases such as cancer. The finding, published in the journal Research on Social Work Practice, has major implications for helping children cope with grief, said lead author Rene Searles McClatchey. "Often children who have lost a parent are given grief therapy, and we've found that grief therapy doesn't help if you don't take care of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms first," said McClatchey, an adjunct professor in the UGA School of Social Work. McClatchey co-authored the study with UGA associate professor Elizabeth Vonk and University of California, Riverside assistant professor Gregory Palardy.

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Event Appearances (1)

One Last Hug: Three Days at Grief Camp

aTVfest  Atlanta, GA

2014-02-08

Recent Papers (4)

The Impact of Death Education on Fear of Death and Death Anxiety Among Human Services Students


OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying

2015-03-11

Human services professionals will undoubtedly work with the dying and bereaved populations at one time or other. Yet, they are poorly prepared to do so since death education, that is, lessons about the human and emotional aspects of death, its implications, and subsequent bereavement issues, is often not part of their curriculum. This nonequivalent comparison group study (N = 86) examined death fear and death anxiety among human services students before and after receiving death education using the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in death anxiety among the group of students who participated in death education compared to those who did not.

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Coping with parental death as seen from the perspective of children who attended a grief camp


Qualitative Social Work

2012-12-11

In this qualitative case study researchers interviewed 16 parentally bereaved children and their 11 surviving parents in order to conceptualize the emotional impact of losing a parent to death and to understand the possible influence of one bereavement program’s attempt to address these issues. An inductive constant comparative method was used to identify themes which were enriched through deductive computer assisted analysis. Themes presented by children and parents are discussed in terms of the emotional impact of the death and the influence of the program on each issue. Themes revealed were Sadness, Anger, Being Set Apart, Worries, Trauma, and Contemplation of Suicide.

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Healing Components of a Bereavement Camp: Children and Adolescents Give Voice to Their Experiences


OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying

2012-08-01

This qualitative study is the follow-up to a quantitative controlled study which showed a decrease in childhood traumatic grief and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in parentally bereaved children participating in a bereavement camp. The purpose of this study was to identify the healing components of this camp model. Semi-structured interviews with 19 children and 13 parents/guardians were conducted 3 to 9 months after participation in the bereavement camp. Therapeutic Interventions and Traditional Camp Activities emerged as themes. The themes are discussed in relation to previous research as are limitations of the study and the implications for theory, practice, and future research.

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An exploratory study of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among bereaved children


Journal of Death and Dying

2005 This study reports on the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among a sample (n= 46) of bereaved children. PTSD symptoms in children who have experienced loss due to an expected death through illness have not been previously ...

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