CAPC ACEs Data

Cassie Lowe 3/12/212:36 PM

The CAPC has been universally screening all clients and families since 2018. In May 2020, just 2 months after COVID was deemed a global pandemic, we analyzed some of our year-to-date data average ACE scores from 2019 and compared them to the same time period post-COVID. Our analysis indicated significant increases in the average ACE scores of clients/families we served across our various departments.

While we were careful not to establish a causal assumption and say confidently that COVID was specifically responsible for these increases, ultimately- we used this as motivation to KEEP GOING! To keep doing our important work that had been appropriately labeled "essential". These statistics were a clear reminder that families needed help now, more than ever, and we could NOT slow down.

We also encouraged staff to remember that COVID was its OWN adverse childhood experience! Afterall, COVID met all the trauma definition criteria: sudden, expected, and rocked our world! COVID coupled with other historical adversities only compounded the challenges of families - but even families who had never experienced adversities (at least as they are categorized on the ACEs screening) suddenly found themselves reeling from the unexpected and need of help from social service agencies they'd never accessed before.

Undoubtedly - the ESSENTIAL workers of the world are just that: essential. And at the CAPC, our essential workers are SUPERHEROES! We've said all along: COVID can't stop good -and we're still going strong, 1 year later!

*The CAPC is available to discuss strategies on how to help agencies of all kinds implement universal ACEs screening into their work!

Cassie Lowe, M.A., LMFT

CAPC Program Director

clowe@nochildabuse.org

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Jose Heredia-RodriguezMember

Amazing! This data validates our efforts for this network and shows the importance of screening for ACEs as a county. We can be the difference for someone's tomorrow.

I think that "Lee M. Sanders" compliments what Cassie is showing with this chart in their article "Is COVID-19 an adverse childhood experience (ACE): Implications for screening for primary care":

In fact, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic may be amplifying some ACEs. There are several ways in which ACEs may be exacerbated by the social isolation, job loss, school closures, and other stressors unleashed by the pandemic. First, the pandemic may have increased intra-familial adversity, by exposing children to increased parental anxieties, especially those associated with job loss, food insecurity, and housing insecurity. Second, by amplifying toxic stress, increased family adversity may impair child brain development, particularly during the early years. Third, the pandemic's indirect social and economic impact on family stress may linger for months or years. Fourth, the pandemic and its response are disproportionately affecting low-income and ethnic minority populations, which are already at increased risk for ACE-impacted chronic conditions like preterm birth, diabetes, hypertension, and chronic lung disease. Taken together, the indirect effects of the pandemic response could exacerbate each of the common ACEs in children's lives.

I'm excited about where the network is heading and the positive impact that is going to have on our community!

#ACEsAware #SanJoaquinStrong #BuildingABetterTomorrow #CrossSectorCollaboration

3/15/2112:25 PM

Gene HardinMember

Well said, fantastic data, and great advice about realizing data outcomes and the need to dive deeper about COVID! Great stuff! Thank you Cassie

3/15/2111:07 AM

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