There are of course lots of examples of fine work going on around ACEs, but there are also aspects of the ACE movement that make me feel a little uncomfortable. I worry that what is clearly a well-intentioned desire to just do something might not do good and could cause harm. My concerns are absolutely not meant as a criticism of the motivation and altruism underlying the ACEs movement, but as a cautionary nudge to make sure that, in our enthusiasm to do good, we don’t run before we can walk.

New mothers should receive a mental health checkup six weeks after giving birth to help tackle possible postnatal depression and other problems related to having a baby, ministers have been told. A cross-party group of 60 MPs and peers have written to Steve Brine, the minister for public health and primary care, demanding that all mothers in England have an assessment of their emotional and mental health carried out by a GP, practice nurse or health visitor. They say that making such...

Andrew thanks for your interesting contribution to the debate around ACEs. As a survivor of early trauma, having been sent to an English boarding school at the age of 6 in the late 1950s, I have followed the development of the ACEs movement closely in Britain and Ireland and in the USA. After careful consideration I am an advocate of an ACEs, trauma-informed approach to ameliorating trauma consequences [it makes a whole lot more sense than the orthodox psychoanalysis I was subjected to over...

Hi simon I am based in Kent where there is zero understanding of ACE and very little being done to alter it. I would be so interested in you work

Helen, great to hear from you. Please get in touch at my email below. We're not going to be rigid about the Greater London boundary and will do what we can to help. Things are certainly on the move in London Simon