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Dear ACEs Community, The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has released a Draft Recommendation Statement on Child Maltreatment: Primary Care Interventions. Opportunity for public comment expires on June 18, 2018 at 8:00 PM EST. View the full Draft at: https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/RecommendationStatementDraft/child-maltreatment-primary-care-interventions1#consider Here's an excerpt from the recommendation: In 2013, the USPSTF found...

Some 41 percent of transgender adults report that they have attempted suicide at some point in their lives, according to a report by the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development, Children, Youth & Family Consortium reviewing research. Those attempts are associated with bullying and victimization, according to a growing body of research, cited in the report. The authors reviewed research and strategies that could be used by communities to build resilience among...

Photo by Terabass/ CC-SA-3.0 It was around 2010 that Dr. Angela Bymaster was seeing a disturbing pattern in the histories of her adult patients. She already knew that patients who saw her at the Valley Homeless Health Care Program in San Jose, CA, where she worked at the time, were homeless or recently homeless. What was most troubling to Bymaster was knowing that their current precarious existence could have been prevented. Dr. Angela Bymaster “Over and over and over again I was hearing the...

I woke up in an ambulance. The last thing I could remember was standing on a ledge in an auditorium and practicing for my school’s choir performance. I was in ninth grade, it was my first field trip in my new home here in the United States, and I was nervous. Then everything went black. I had fainted. Although my front teeth bore the brunt of my fall and saved me from serious injury, I had broken them all. As the paramedic gently explained to me why there was blood gushing from my mouth, he...

To what extent do parents' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect ACEs and health status among their children? Linking data of 350 parents and their children from the 2012 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey (HHS) and the Philadelphia ACE Survey, researchers found statistically significant correlations between parents' ACE scores and their children's health status. "Our results suggest that the full scope of health effects of ACEs is not limited to the exposed individual.

“I'm already beat. The trick is to not let the caring get to you.” These were the words recently uttered by one of my physician colleagues, referring to the stresses of caring for patients in the world of modern health care. The weariness was clear over the phone. Without missing a step, I responded, “I know. Of course.” It took me weeks to realize that it might be concerning that I immediately empathized with her sense of being submerged and overpowered by an uncaring health care system.

More than 214,000 students have experienced gun violence in their schools since the first tragic shooting at Columbine High School in 1998, according to data analysis by the Washington Post . The most recent incident occurred just days ago on May 18th; a student killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School in Sante Fe, Texas. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has provided the following downloadable resources: Tips for parents on media coverage Parent Guidelines for helping youth after...

The CDC/Kaiser Permanente landmark ACEs study showed a dose-dependent association between ACEs and health outcomes in adulthood. In this study of 837 patients, researchers examined the association between childhood predictors, including higher ACE scores, with levels of inflammation in adulthood. Read more about the study that appeared in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry here .

On an ACEs Connection webinar on Monday, Dr. Andrew Seaman, an assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, showed how he navigates his students through the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). And, in an unusual twist for a webinar, Seaman and O’Nesha Cochran, a peer mentor with the Mental Health Association of Oregon, role-played doctor-patient interactions to show how to develop the skills to communicate with patients with high ACE scores. About 90 people...

On an ACEs Connection webinar on Monday, Dr. Andrew Seaman, an assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, showed how he navigates his students through the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). And, in an unusual twist for a webinar, Seaman and O’Nesha Cochran, a peer mentor with the Mental Health Association of Oregon, role-played doctor-patient interactions to show how to develop the skills to communicate with patients with high ACE scores. About 90 people...

Nearly half of the nation’s youth report having experienced at least one traumatic event. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day 2018 event in Washington, DC, will feature an interactive town hall on strategies to create an integrated health approach to support children, youth, and young adults who have experienced trauma. Awareness Day 2018: “Partnering for Health and Hope Following Trauma,” will take place on...

When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it.