Those who have been around me in person the last couple of months would tell you that the term “ACEs” has come up in conversations almost daily. Deeply researching and learning about the direct correlation between adverse childhood experiences and one’s future health and functioning has been mind-blowing.
Do you know a little one who is being exposed to abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction?
Abuse: physical, emotional, or sexual
Neglect: physical or emotional
Household dysfunction: incarcerated parent, mental illness, a mother who is treated violently, substance abuse, or divorce
Each of the above situations counts as one ACE (adverse childhood experience). Some researchers are also counting the experiences of racism, poverty, homelessness, family separation and/or a father being abused as additional ACEs.) The greater number of ACEs a little one is exposed to, the greater the odds that he or she will suffer from life-altering physical and mental ramifications later.
So what can be done? What is The Center for Youth Wellness and its Stress Health initiative directly trying to do?
The want to shine a light on how toxic this type of stress is on a child and change the action plan for how to help these little ones.
Right now, The Center for Youth Wellness is working tirelessly on improving trauma screenings for children. They want pediatricians to ask about home-based environments during wellness visits just as often as they screen for vision and hearing. If red flags for ACEs come up during these visits, they want these situations to receive immediate attention via various options for helping the child and/or family.
Here what science tells us:
What if I know a little one who needs help in one or more of these areas?
This resource page on The Center for Youth Wellness website has gobs of information for who to get in touch with and how to best help a little one in your life who needs some assistance and may not even know it. You can sign up for regular newsletters from the Stress Health Initiative and the Center for Youth Wellness on this page.
I believe in this mission too! How else can I help?
You can donate to The Center for Youth Wellness on their website. If your business or organization is looking for a new charity to get behind, this may be one to present and consider!
Let’s chat!
Have you heard of toxic stress or ACEs before? Do you agree that this is something that should be part of the agenda during wellness visits? Why or why not?
This post was written by me as part of my ongoing partnership with The Center for Youth Wellness, an organization I stand behind 100%.
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo