Adverse Childhood Experiences Forum [Great Falls, MT]

The Great Falls Alliance for Youth, United Way of Cascade County, and Family Connections will host a free training sesson on Thursday, April 30th to discuss "ACES," which stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. 

The event will be held from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. in the Tabacco Room of the Sletten Cancer Institute located at 1117 29th Street South. 

Information from a study done by Kaiser Permanente will be presented to show how and why adversity and trauma reliably predict risk for mental, physical, and behavioral health disorders, and can even lead to early death, according to the event organizers. 

Limited seating is available for the event. 

If you are interested, or for more information, call Laura Day at Alliance For Youth at 268-6780.  

The U.S. Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) website provides this overview of ACES: 

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being. The study is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego. 

More than 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) members undergoing a comprehensive physical examination chose to provide detailed information about their childhood experience of abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction. 

To date, more than 50 scientific articles have been published and more than100 conference and workshop presentations have been made.