Thanks to the national spotlight from this 60 Minutes segment, the trauma informed care movement has gained critical momentum. Like many human services and other trauma informed agencies, SaintA is being asked, “So, what’s next?” while simultaneously continuing to work on the “Right now.”
We all know the statistics: Right now, nearly three-fourths (67%) of Americans have had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). Right now, about 25% have three or more ACEs. * And, right now, we know a large number of Americans are reeling from a new-found understanding of how childhood trauma still affects them today.
We know this because the research has taught us - and because people have told us.
The Oprah Effect
If I could share the hundreds of emails, phone calls, social media messages, and Google texts we have gotten since that 60 Minutes segment aired, I would.
The overwhelming response punctuates what many of us know already; there is a phenomenon of underlying childhood adversity behind many of today’s socioeconomic, health, housing, educational and other social crises. And the country is hungry for understanding and intervention.
ACE Scores Are First Step to Healing
When SaintA did a study in 2015 of our young adult clients who had aged out of foster care, we found that 65% had five or more ACEs. Since then, we have met several young people with ACE scores of eight, nine, or even 10.
Skyilar, now in their early twenties and who prefers they/them pronouns, is one such example. They recently shared with us how they learned about the ACE screening from their high school teacher during their senior year.
Here is an excerpt from the story, How One Screening Changed a Life,originally published on SaintA.org:
When Skyilar did the ACE screening, they scored very high. In fact, out of the 10 adversities listed, they had experienced all of them.
“At least I had an explanation,” says Skyilar, about the moment they realized there wasn’t something wrong with them. Instead, many of their behaviors, such as alcohol use, were actually an attempt to cope with their response to trauma.
Skyilar’s teacher was the first to ask, “What happened to you,” rather than, “What’s wrong with you.” This gave them a new outlook so they would not be held back by their experiences. “My ACE score helped me realize all the places I needed to heal,” said Skyilar.
With Momentum Comes Responsibility
We know that an individual’s ACE score is just the beginning. The screening is an important tool for anyone struggling to understand "what happened to" them.
From there, resilience greatly depends on the individual's trauma response and a host of other intrinsic and extrinsic factors – reason to be and relationship, just to name a few.
We all have an opportunity to leverage the current local, state and national momentum around understanding trauma. This can feel overwhelming at times.
After his sit-down interview with Oprah, SaintA's Chief Clinical Officer, Tim Grove, wrote this follow-up, called A Call to Care: Next Steps. In it, he outlines a few action steps and provides some examples of how the ACE- and trauma-informed community can create the right environments for care, treatment and eventually, healing.
*According to the seminal study on Adverse Childhood Experiencesdone by co-principal researchers Dr. Rob Anda and Dr. Vincent Felitti.
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