Although Covid-19 is on the top of everyone’s list for attention, the posting earlier this week of a link to Dr. Robert Anda, et al.’s paper, Inside the Adverse Childhood Experience Score: Strengths, Limitations, and Misapplications [ajpmonline.org] should also be front and center because it raises profound questions for everyone involved in the ACEs movement. On the surface, the article is a pointed critique of ACEs screening. But it is much more than that. It raises fundamental questions...

Please welcome the following five communities to ACEs Connection. The Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ+Survivors Details about each one of these communities can be found below. The Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ+Survivors: Welcome! This group is for anyone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ Community or who supports the community. Community Managers: @Jenna Quinn (ACEs Connection Staff) and @Mary Giuliani ACEs Connection Community Facilitators For questions about starting or...

(Poster's comment: While this editorial is about COVID-19 it also applies to ACEs. The need for reliable and comprehensive data is necessary to define ACEs science and practice in a time of politicizing of of our movement. Dennis Haffron) EDITORIAL| VOLUME 396, ISSUE 10254 , P799, SEPTEMBER 19, 2020 Peer Review Week is the annual celebration of the importance of peer review, running Sept 21–25. The theme this year is trust in peer review, a particularly appropriate focus during the COVID-19...

This correspondence appeared in THE LANCET on Sept 26th. The this is the concluding paragraph. " The Lancet deserves credit for drawing attention to the crucial need for the application of principles of the Black Lives Matter movement to the area of medical publications and for emphasising the need for representativeness of published research, commissioned authors, and profiled individuals to include minorities. Readers will be eager to see how The Lancet translates its anti-racism pledge...

This appeared in The Lancet on Sept 24, 2020: Summary The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. Many countries have implemented restrictions on population movement to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed; some have instituted full or partial lockdowns. However, lockdowns and other extreme restrictions cannot be sustained for the long term in the hope that there will be an effective vaccine or...

The following quote appeared in an editorial in The Lancet on June 13, 2020: "What can medical journals do? Our task is to educate ourselves and others about racism. We must support Black and minority ethnic health workers. And we must use evidence and our values to speak out for Black and minority ethnic communities. The Lancet is a journal with a deep colonial history: the journal has published work that supported the health of settler colonialists and that prioritised their health over...

By October 5, 2020, Harvard Business Review. 2020 is the year the world’s attention turned to the deep fractures of our economic, political, educational, and healthcare systems. The year when status quo solutions were no longer good enough. For all the declarations of being “in this together,” the dual pandemics of Covid-19 and systemic racism have revealed how low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately left out, let down, and punished by our systems. The death of...

The Transform Trauma with ACEs Sciences FREE Film Festival continues this weekend. Please join us to watch parts 1, 2, and 3 of the PBS Whole People series at your convenience, on ACEs Connection, by clicking play on the videos below: Whole People | 101 | Childhood Trauma | Episode 1 (27 min) Preview: Whole People | 102 | Healing Communities | Preview | Episode 2 Whole People | 102 |Healing Communities Episode 2 (27 min) Whole People | 103 |A New Response | Episode 3 (27 min) This is one of...

By Robert A. Hahn, December 11, 2020, SAPIENS Anthropology Magazine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the primary agency in the United States that monitors, predicts, and responds to chronic disease, injury, outbreaks, and pandemics, should have social science at its heart. It does not. Despite decades of trying to get the agency to take the social sciences more seriously, and some movement on its part, insights from anthropology, along with other social sciences, have...

A potential resolution is on the horizon, but for COVID-19 vaccination to work, people need to be willing to take the vaccines. Like many social scientists working in the fields of vaccine uptake and disaster response and recovery, we anticipated that widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines would be a critical issue—an issue upon which the success of the vaccination campaign, and the solution to the pandemic, would hinge. That is what we are now seeing today.

Now more than ever before, there is a red-hot exclamation point on the urgent need for a coordinated and cross-sector effort to build national resilience against fake facts. We must give our education system the tools it needs to build new skills and habits of mind to help defend our youth and our nation.

ACEs Aware [a California ACEs Initiative] has recently released a brand new video featuring Dr. Burke Harris explaining the symptoms of toxic stress and encouraging providers to sign up for ACEs Aware's free, two-hour online training. The ACEs Aware video is available in full, half, and no animation versions. Links are included in the attachment with recommendations for each channel, but you are encouraged to post the animation version that best suits your audience. Links to all three...

Calls for mental health professionals and researchers to more deeply engage with service users and activists

Thank you for your comment. The information on slide 11 was an attempt by me to bridge the gap between the ACEs study and the trauma informed responses that have developed. In Dr. Burke Harris’ Ted Talk she focused on the predictability of ACEs for individuals, which is not supported by the ACEs study, and her idea of ACEs becoming a movement, which was more in line with the ACEs study. When following up on her Ted Talk and in reading her book THE DEEPEST WELL I was able to follow her...

Building The Movement Through: 1] Transformative Justice And Faith-Based Institutions: 2] With Populations With High Prevalence Of Trauma: 3] With Foundations And The Private Sector: 4] Through Policy and Advocacy.

Lets build a new community, (PACES AND THE SENIOR CITIZEN)  Seniors that are informed and involved can be a resource. Senior citizens vote, their political goodwill would great.  Secondly, seniors have the time and effort to build PACES communities and institutions.  Thirdly, senior citizens can function as members of extended families and neighborhoods.

June event dates listed for the PACEs Connection Creating Resilient Communities Accelerator Program. JOIN US!!!

By Whitney Marris, Trauma Therapist and CTIPP's Director of Practice & System Transformation 2022 marked a successful advocacy year for the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice’s (CTIPP) network. Federal and state leaders proposed and supported legislation to prevent and address trauma and create more long-term health, equity, and resilience in more significant numbers than in past years. There is no doubt that the continued commitment and efforts of advocates around the...

PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program.

PACEs Connection is excited to roll out our summer 2023 *CRC* curriculum dates. Members who complete the CRC will qualify for a fall 2023 fellowship program.

(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new...

Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...

The Mr. Nice Guy Syndrome is a curious mixture of appealing strengths, insecurities, and problematic behaviors rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Mr. Nice Guy compensates for hidden childhood wounds by struggling to do everything right, but the syndrome's limited gains come at a cost. The syndrome suggests strategies for a more satisfying adulthood and better relationships.

Former PACEs Connection employees Dana Brown (L) with Vincent Felitti, MD, co-author of the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences study, and Carey Sipp (R) in San Diego in January, 2024. The last few months have been quite challenging, but we pushed, persevered, and didn’t give up hope. The “we” is Carey Sipp and Dana Brown. We were long-time staff members of PACEs Connection determined to reinstate the website and the resources and information we provide to communities after the platform went...

The body often tells the real story of trauma better than the thinking mind. Before one can verbalize and complete the trauma story, one typically must return to physical equilibrium. Trauma expert Levine explains ways to calm physical and emotional responses to trauma and regain a sense of wholeness.