At El Dorado ACEs Collaborative meeting, NPPC talks ACEs, new connections forged

More than 65 people showed up in person in Placerville or via teleconferencing from South Lake Tahoe on Feb. 21 to learn about the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC), a program of the San Francisco-based Center for Youth Wellness.

Among the discussion points made by NPPC Program Manager Leena Singh were the connection between ACEs and health outcomes, the need for doing universal ACEs screening, and the necessary infrastructure to implement ACEs screening, according to Lynnan Svensson, the co-founder of the El Dorado ACEs Collaborative.

The meeting, which included physicians, representatives from social services, health care agencies, education, community groups, public safety and education, helped forge new connections.

“We had a couple of physicians who were interested in doing ACEs screening, but they were concerned about not having resources available in the community,” said Svensson.

That gave Svensson an opportunity. She told them about resources they did not know existed.

“We have 5 community hubs in the county based at libraries,” said Svensson. Each hub provides home visits and wrap-around services for families to help them build resilience, she explained. The hubs include a public health nurse, a community health advocate, an early literacy advocate and a community engagement specialist.

“The public health nurse’s ability to walk a family through the system is not something every county has. It’s a real advantage in El Dorado County,” said Kathleen Guerrero, the executive director of First 5 El Dorado, who also attended the meeting.

Along those lines, Guerrero said among the takeaways from Singh’s talk was discussion of the areas that have the greatest impact on addressing ACEs. “Brief intervention, nutrition, exercise, mental health, mindfulness and healthy relationships. I thought that was really key.”

“Everyone was super excited that anyone could participate in the [NPPC] learning community,” said Svensson. She said she expects that many in her collaborative will likely join.