The 2018 Building Strong Brains Tennessee ACEs Summit took place last week in Nashville, TN. The theme of this year’s summit was “Celebrating Successes and Imagining Possibilities” and there is plenty to celebrate. Tennessee is one of the most innovative states when it comes to ACEs awareness. Tennessee understands that childhood trauma is the root cause of its poor health outcomes, high rates of addiction and other ailments. And Tennessee is doing something about it. Tennessee’s leadership...

In 2011, a youth needs assessment of the Kansas City metro area included surveys of pediatricians and school nurses, mental health providers and teenagers, pre-school teachers and parents. No matter what discipline was represented, trauma and toxic stress kept coming up, said Marsha Morgan, Chief Operating Officer of Truman Medical Centers Department of Behavioral Health. It was clear that we had to do something. We had to make this a community issue. The needs assessment showed that more...