Sonoma County is mentioned in this article as a community that's addressing ACEs.
The lowest of 31 grades issued in the 2016 California Children's Report Card released on Wednesday was for dealing with the effects of childhood trauma.
In Children Now's biennial assessment of the status of California kids, researchers gave the state a "D-" for how it deals with childhood trauma. The report contends that children who experience traumatic problems such as abuse, neglect and witnessing violence at home can suffer serious long-term consequences, including health problems like diabetes and mental health challenges such as depression.
Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, a national advocacy organization based in California, said the key issue for legislators, policy makers and the public to glean from the report is that too many kids live in poverty in California.
"When you talk about trauma issues, the same truth carries over like it does in so many other parts of a kids life -- education, health care, mental health. The reality is that parents can't do it all alone, and it costs money to get help," Lempert said.
"We know the devastating impact poverty has on kids affecting a range of outcomes, from health, to brain development, to their chances of success in school," Lempert wrote in the report's introduction. "Over four million California children come from low-income households, and more than two million live below the poverty line. Those numbers are too big to ignore."
To read the rest of this article by George Lauer, go to: http://www.californiahealthlin...ith-childhood-trauma
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