My name is Donovan Ackley III, PhD CADC. I think an ELDERS - PACES/ACES site will be important because of the work I currently do with regard to PACES: I help coordinate trauma-informed training for providers of publicly-funded behavioral health services including substance use treatment services to low-
income adults and older adults -- specifically the Geriatric Certificate Training series in which County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services providers can specialize. Even here in San Diego, where the original ACES studies were done, providers in these trainings have frequently expressed familiarity with ACES but have often told us they had not connected childhood experiences with the behavioral health and substance use of older adults who may be seeking help for the first time in their elder years. Although many know ACES, most have not yet heard of PACES. As we introduce these to county providers to the ACES and PACES screening questionnaire in our trainings, they have let us know it has changed the way they work with elders. The elders who access county services tend to be those who do not have private insurance and are at the intersections of many forms of risk and discrimination, so it is especially exciting to see their providers now incorporating ACES and PACES.
On a personal note, I am now past 55 -- entering my own elder years -- and have leaned on ACES / PACES not just in my own recovery journey but also in my past work. As a person with an ACES score of 9/10 myself, the ACES/PACES movement is integral to my own recovery and has had a ripple effect into my life work, both professionally and as a community organizer with such organizations as Trauma Recovery Yoga (started for first responders after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017) and Trans Lifeline, a national peer support warm line I helped found in 2015. I helped design their nationally-accredited trauma-informed training curriculum for staff and volunteers in collaboration with the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, then went on to collaborate directly with SAMHSA on their own peer support curriculum for people living with HIV and AIDS. In every one of these marginalized communities, elders seeking peer support and other help seemed to be offered less resources than younger adults and adolescents, yet often had more trauma (for example, the elders who are the original survivors of the first wave of the AIDS epidemic). So applying ACES / PACES can potentially have a powerful impact.
Here are links for the County of San Diego workforce development provider Academy for Professional Excellence https://theacademy.sdsu.edu/ and Geriatric Certificate Training Program (for those who work in the County of San Diego's Behavioral Health Services system of care) https://theacademy.sdsu.edu/pr...raining-gct-program/
Comments (0)