When Dr. Angela Bymaster thinks about ACEs exposure, her thoughts often turn to the adolescents who are her patients now. “It’s the teenagers who keep me up at night,” says Bymaster, a family medicine doctor who works at the Washington Neighborhood Health Clinic in San Jose. The clinic serves low-income families in a predominantly Latino neighborhood.
“They’re so often starting with the behaviors themselves. The teenagers are the intersection of adverse childhood events happening to you, and you bringing them to the next generation," she says. “So substance use disorders will start now, and end up as in utero drug exposures in a few years. "
Bymaster is figuring out details for introducing ACEs screening at her clinic and to work with others in her community to develop classes she can refer her patients to that teach resilience, particularly targeting teenagers.
To start with though, she’s preparing to educate people about ACEs at a community event at Washington Elementary School, the campus where her health clinic is located.
“We’re going to do a Day of Peace on Saturday, September 22. It’s going to be awesome! We’re going to have bouncy houses, and bands, and mariachis.” And Bymaster and her colleagues will be talking about ACEs science with attendees, as well as doing general health screens at their School Health Clinics booth.
Bymaster says that Pastor Jairo Sarmiento, a neighborhood pastor, organized the Day of Peace/ Dia de Paz, and the theme is bringing peace to one’s household. “We’re in a high crime area, and there’s a lot of gang violence. And that’s all that people talk about all the time. But [Pastor Sarmiento] said, ‘We need to talk about violence in our homes. And we need to talk about how to bring peace into each and every home.’”
Reflecting on the event’s focus, Bymaster says, “That’s about resilience, ACEs and what we talk about every day.”
For more information, see the attached flyer.
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