Saint John New Brunswick becomes the first community in Canada to adapt and replicate the Self-Healing Communities Model

Funded in September 2019 through the Social Innovation Fund and LivingSJ, the 3-year project is co-sponsored by Horizon Health Network and the Boys and Girls Club of Saint John.  The project team is being guided, mentored and trained by world leaders Laura Porter, Kathy Adams and Dr. Robert Anda, Co-Principal Investigator of the original ACE study.

The Self-Healing Communities Model (SHCM) has over 15 years of demonstrated success in Washington State. Communities who implemented the model improved rates of many interrelated and intergenerational health and social problems by investing in the people most at risk and reducing and preventing the root cause of these problems: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Key Findings

Over 10 to 15 years in Cowlitz Co., Washington.:

• Births to teen mothers went down 62% and infant mortality went down 43%;
• Youth suicide and suicide attempts went down 98%;
• Youth arrests for violent crime dropped 53%;
• High school dropout rates decreased by 47%;  
• Similar results were seen in other counties

The SHCM has been proven to decrease ACE prevalence and intensity from one generation to the next, thereby concurrently reducing many mental, physical, behavioural and economic/productivity problems. Solutions are durable because they are born of culture change. Improvements are sustainable because they originate from solving problems vs. treating symptoms.

Direct-service interventions, while necessary, are not sufficient to produce transformative health improvements, generate population-based change or catalyze the social movement necessary to address the scope of the problems generated by ACEs. We need to engage the public, inspire innovation, support peer helping, ease the daily stress burden of parents and promote change in all systems that serve them so that together our community can better protect and nurture the next generation. By changing the way we think about social problems and solutions to them we will generate change that is affordable, scalable and designed to produce exponential improvements in population health. The SHCM leads to the desired cultural shift.

Our path forward

Guided by the Saint John Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience and Community Collective (ARC):

• We hosted the ‘Understanding ACEs Train-the-Master-Trainer Program’ for 30 individuals from across sectors in November 2019 and plan to train 30 more in a few years time. The program was led by Dr. Robert Anda, Laura Porter and Kathy Adams.
  
  Our Master Trainers work in healthcare (e.g. Addiction and Mental Health, Pediatrics and Neonatal, Psychiatry, Social Pediatrics, Public Health, Community Development), Early Childhood Intervention Services, Elementary Schools and Pathways to Education/Teen Resource Centre, UNB Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, Inner City Ministry, Social Services (e.g. Child Protection, Adoption Unit), and Not-for-Profits (e.g. John Howard Society, Boys and Girls Club, Harm Reduction agency, YMCA Newcomers program).
  
  Although the project funding is specifically for Saint John-based initiatives, many of the trainers have a broader reach to other parts of the province and beyond.
  
  
• We are supporting the Master Trainers in their commitment to develop competency to train others and support one another through a Community of Practice.
  
  The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have slowed us down, but we remain committed and flexible. By March 1^st 2020 the Master Trainers had conducted 30 education sessions with close to 300 community members. Several virtual professional development sessions have been held in recent months.
  
  In the longer term, Master Trainers will select others they have trained to become presenters themselves in a more limited capacity, thus further multiplying the reach across the community and beyond.
  
  
• We will host two workshops: ‘Intro to the Self-Healing Communities Model ‘and ‘Leadership in Self-Healing Communities’. They will be delivered by the expert from Washington State, Laura Porter, as soon as travel and group gatherings are once again safe and possible.
  
  
• We will develop the Self-Healing Communities Model implementation plan, including an evaluation framework based on the General Community Capacity Index (GCC).
  
  General Community Capacity (GCC) refers to the ability of a geographically-based group of people to come together, build authentic relationships and reflect honestly about things that matter, share democratic leadership and take collective actions that assure social and health equity for all residents. Increasing the GCC of a community is a holistic long-range culture-change strategy that leads to better adapted, more resilient communities.
  
  
• We will work collaboratively with residents and service providers to implement the plan to make Saint John a Self-Healing Community.
  
  
• We will host a Guiding NEAR workshop in the spring of 2021 (Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs and Resilience). This will be a deep dive into the science and its application using systems and network theory, further developing our capacity to bring about change.

Thanks to ACEs Connection, we were made aware of these excellent evidence-based programs. Perhaps your community or region will be the next to implement them! Numerous communities and States in the USA have done so. Let’s not reinvent the wheel.

For more information about the Self-Healing Communities Model and the Master Train the Trainer program:

• Watch the webinar by Laura Porter, hosted by ACEs Connection in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edP2C92Z4Ak
  
  
• Read the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Summary and Report: https://www.rwjf.org/en/librar...t%20of%20a%20system.
  
  
• Visit the ACE Interface company website: https://www.aceinterface.com/
  

For more information about the New Brunswick project, contact Denise.Connors@HorizonNB.ca