Three decades ago, a team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Diego asked thousands of patients about traumatic events from their childhood. The responses were collected and analyzed against health records for a study known as the Adverse Childhood Experiences study or ACEs, a landmark study in the field of trauma research.
The researchers found a strong correlation between the ten adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - which include physical and sexual abuse, losing a parent, or living with an alcoholic - and health problems in adulthood: Individuals with an ACE score of four or higher are three times more likely to experience depression, seven times more likely to be an alcoholic and twelve times more likely to attempt suicide.
For Paladin Career and Technical High School Director Brandon Wait, this research was a revelation. He realized Paladin's approach had to change, "If a student doesn't feel safe in school, they're not going to care about Algebra Two," he said. "Of course academics are important, but until you can get a student feeling safe, they're not going to care."
[For more of this story, written by Lila Cherneff, go to http://www.apmreports.org/stor...auma-informed-school]
Comments (0)