Treating Childhood Trauma (www.cbsnews.com)

Excerpts:

Bonnie Hahn: I didn't understand it because PTSD was for the veterans coming home from the war. That was what I thought it was. I had no idea.

and

Tim Grove: We might not be able to ever prevent the stuff that happens to kids. But we are fully in charge of how we respond when we see it.

Tim Grove: Ten questions primarily taking a lens and looking at sort of the family home and saying to adults looking back at their childhood, "Were you physically abused? Were you neglected? Did someone go to prison?" Ten questions categorizing adversity that kids face.

Alisha Fox: I did a ACE test for them, and I scored a nine out of ten.

For anyone, a high score on the ACE test is a powerful predictor of physical and mental problems down the road. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it makes you five times as likely to be depressed and can cut your overall life expectancy by as much as twenty years.

The CDC says this isn't theory, it's scientific fact, backed up by hundreds of published studies. And, the CDC says, one out of every eight children suffers enough trauma to cause lasting damage.

Dr. Bruce Perry: If you have developmental trauma, the truth is you're going to be at risk for almost any kind of physical health, mental health, social health problem that you can think of.

Dr. Bruce Perry may be the world's leading expert on childhood trauma. He has treated thousands of children, and been called on for decades to treat kids traumatized in high-profile events including the Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings. He's a psychiatrist, and also has a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

Dr. Bruce Perry: That very same sensitivity that makes you able to learn language just like that as a little infant makes you highly vulnerable to chaos, threat, inconsistency, unpredictability--

Oprah Winfrey: Violence.

Dr. Bruce Perry: --violence. And so children are much more sensitive to developmental trauma than adults.

Full transcript and text.

Cissy's Note: I wish the more expansive view of ACEs / ACE Test had been included. I'm glad homelessness was included as trauma and childhood adversity. I hope does a follow-up on implementing trauma-informed frameworks, community resilience, and more about what individuals, communities, and organizations can and are doing.