By Bob Erlenbusch and Drew Factor, California Health Report, November 21, 2019
“Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today,” Dr. Robert Block, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has been widely quoted as saying.
According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, conducted in the 1990’s by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, adverse childhood experiences are common, and the resulting health and behavioral health issues span a lifetime.
What are adverse childhood experiences, commonly referred to as ACEs? The study identified three types: abuse, neglect and household dysfunction. Since the study, the list of ACEs has been expanded to include living in unsafe neighborhoods, food insecurity, homelessness, bullying, income insecurity, discrimination and racism.
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