A negative experience as a child can have a big impact on a person’s health, and the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition wants to begin figuring how those experiences are affecting the people of Juneau — and spreading the word about the link in the first place.
“The ACEs study seems to be well-known within specific communities (like behavioral health) but broadly, in the community, it’s not well known,” said Hilary Young, Suicide Prevention Program Coordinator for Juneau Youth Services and JSPC.
That’s in spite of the fact that many people in Alaska, and in Juneau, have had the experiences — sexual, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, a jailed family member — that can lead to difficulties later in life.
ACEs stands for “Adverse Childhood Experiences.” In the 1980s, researcher Dr. Vincent Felitti noticed a link between sexual abuse and obesity. He and Dr. Robert Anda were the first to begin researching the link between traumatic childhood experiences and mental and physical health later in life. The two narrowed down the inquiry to ten basic yes or no questions about trauma a person might experience before the age of 18. The survey takes less than two minutes to complete.
Many people may not have even spoken about negative experiences they had early on in life — but healing can start even just with the survey, said coalition member and retired state health planner and epidemiologist Alice Rarig.
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