Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) are situations in which an individual experienced childhood maltreatment. In one of the most important studies ever conducted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego surveyed 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) workers. In this study, the HMO workers were anonymously polled about their ACE scores.1 ACE lead to bad health outcomes which include but are not limited to shortened life span, increased likelihood to contract illness, and potential death.2 The prevalence of any childhood exposure to abuse and household dysfunction is 52.1%.3 This is a significant problem because ACEs are highly preventable and yet they are extremely prevalent.
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The policy level has been interacted with in the form of laws that ban situations that would cause ACE. In addition, there are institutions that support victims of abuse and their families. The ACE study revealed that there was a substantial amount of childhood experience that went unreported. Therefore, there needs to be feedback so that the policies and service already in place can be utilized. First, intervention in the community level is necessary, for the people of a community should feel empowered to personally intervene in the possibility of ACE. Community members can be aware of abuse, but are afraid that intervention may break up a family or lead to worse outcomes. In order to achieve this, community meetings and support networks can be used in order to convey that intervention is the best option. In addition to community building, the victims of any sort of ACE should feel that finding help is an option. From the interpersonal level, victims should feel that expressing abuse or neglect is effective. Communication between not only victims, but people that feel at risk for any sort of ACE should be comfortable and encouraged. This can be achieved through giving individuals a sense of safety through a hotline or even investigations if danger is suspected. If victims feel that they have nothing to lose by reporting a possible ACE, then many would. By spreading awareness and improving individual knowledge of ACE, we can reduce the health outcomes of a significant
The policy level has been interacted with in the form of laws that ban situations that would cause ACE. In addition, there are institutions that support victims of abuse and their families. The ACE study revealed that there was a substantial amount of childhood experience that went unreported. Therefore, there needs to be feedback so that the policies and service already in place can be utilized. First, intervention in the community level is necessary, for the people of a community should feel empowered to personally intervene in the possibility of ACE. Community members can be aware of abuse, but are afraid that intervention may break up a family or lead to worse outcomes. In order to achieve this, community meetings and support networks can be used in order to convey that intervention is the best option. In addition to community building, the victims of any sort of ACE should feel that finding help is an option. From the interpersonal level, victims should feel that expressing abuse or neglect is effective. Communication between not only victims, but people that feel at risk for any sort of ACE should be comfortable and encouraged. This can be achieved through giving individuals a sense of safety through a hotline or even investigations if danger is suspected. If victims feel that they have nothing to lose by reporting a possible ACE, then many would. By spreading awareness and improving individual knowledge of ACE, we can reduce the health outcomes of a significant