Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress are public health crises. ACEs are stressful or traumatic events experienced by age 18, identified in the landmark Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente (KP) Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, to be strongly associated with increased health and social risks. Early detection and intervention can help prevent or reduce the health risks associated with ACEs.
With our longitudinal patient relationships, family physicians have a unique opportunity to make a lasting healthcare impact by thoughtfully identifying cumulative adversity as a root cause to some of our patients’ most persistent and debilitating healthcare challenges.
Over the next year, CAFP will organize a series of regionally-based, peer-to-peer learning workshops - one in each district of the state. During theses online workshops, facilitators will introduce ACEs screening rationale and methods, followed by peer-to-peer discussion groups on best practices, overcoming barriers to care, and practice approaches for this new screening tool.
Meet our Expert Advisory Panel! These experienced and insightful clinicians are working with CAFP to design and conduct the forthcoming 2021 peer-to-peer learning workshops.
CAFP's Family Medicine Initiative on Trauma-Informed Care (FIT) workshop consisted of two sessions, two weeks apart, designed to introduce clinicians to the concepts of toxic stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as they relate to trauma-informed care. In session 1, participants learned about the relationship between toxic stress and chronic disease, how to screen for ACEs, and met in small groups to discuss trauma-informed care. In session 2, the focus shifted to best practices, practical strategies to use when responding to ACEs in their patients, as well as regional/state resources to use with patients. Learners who attended both sessions earned up to 6 AAFP Prescribed Credits.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the workshop, learners should be able to:
Recorded Sessions Coming Soon
From the live sessions, faculty has gathered key material to be recorded and provided to learners online in “bite-sized chunks” through several activities. These activities will be posted on Homeroom by mid-July. Chapters will address things like Trauma-informed Communication Techniques, Building Resilience, Positive Parenting, The Trauma-informed Waiting Room and much more!
Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.
Use the following links to access the tools and resources offered by the Office of the California Surgeon General.
Screening Tools: https://www.acesaware.org/screen/screening-tools/
Clinical Assessment and Treatment Planning: https://www.acesaware.org/treat/clinical-assessment-treatment-planning/
ACEs Resources: https://www.acesaware.org/heal/resources/
Resources available for the FIT P2PL Workshops can be found here: https://www.familydocs.org/aces/resources/
Watch the Community Conversation: ACEs with Adia Scrubb, MD, MPP, PGY3 - inaugural Susan Hogeland, CAE Health Policy Fellow (recorded on April 26, 2020)
In addition to the PDF monograph, we are pleased to offer the We Are Not Our Numbers: Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences cases on the CAFP’s Homeroom platform. Learners can read one chapter at a time, complete cases, and earn 4 AAFP Prescribed credits, 4 AMA PRA Category 1TM credits and 4 California Bureau of Registered Nursing credits.
