62% of Washington State residents have had a least one ACE!

I just received a copy of Dr. Anda's most recent report "Adverse Childhood Experiences & Population Health in Washington: The Face of a Chronic Public Health Disaster" Results from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveilance System, July 2, 2010. The most striking statistic from the original study at Kaiser with 51% of the participants reporting one ACE is the increase to the Washington State statistic of 62%. Those of us who are working with young children in Washington State are seeing the results on a daily basis. I am really concerned about the next two generations. We recently have had a 2.5 year old referred to the program at Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery who was strangling children at his daycare as well as a 5 year old threatening to bomb his school. If there are not more long term intervention programs developed for these children and their parents, the score is going to go up exponentially. We are working with toddlers at 18 months to 12 year olds. What else is being done nationally to stop this plague? Sue Delucchi, Executive Director