Over the past decade, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the founder of the Center for Youth Wellness, in Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco, has emerged as one of the country’s strongest voices calling for a national public health campaign to raise awareness and a sense of urgency about the devastating and potentially lifelong health effects of childhood trauma.
Since the original research on adverse childhood experiences, known as the ACE Study, was published in 1998, a growing body of evidence has indicated that severe or prolonged levels of childhood adversity (often measured in terms of an “ACE score” ranging from 0 to 10) are far more common and harmful than has been appreciated. Dr. Burke Harris, a pediatrician, has led in developing methods to screen and treat children and families suffering health problems attributable to what is known as toxic stress.
Last week, Dr. Burke Harris’s book, “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity,” was published. It offers a powerful — even indispensable — frame to both understand and respond more effectively to our most serious social ills. Recently, I spoke with her about it:
[For more on this story by David Bornstein, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0...hildhood-trauma.html]
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