Integrating ACEs into mental health programming for young children

Felitti and colleague's (1998) work at Kaiser Permanente underlined for children’s mental health specialists that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) pose significant risk for long term negative health outcomes, including... [ view full abstract ]

Felitti and colleague's (1998) work at Kaiser Permanente underlined for children’s mental health specialists that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) pose significant risk for long term negative health outcomes, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Anda et al., 2006), depression (Spinhoven et al., 2010), substance abuse (Anda et al., 2002) and suicide (Brockie et al., 2015; Cluver et al., 2015; Dube et al., 2001). Recognizing the priority for trauma-informed practice, the teams of Alberta Health Services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Programs (CAAMHP) are integrating ACEs into their assessment protocols, as well as systematically collecting data on ACEs pertaining to their program users in order to better inform their clinical practice. The objectives of this oral presentation include a) reviewing the current state of the research literature linking ACEs and mental health outcomes, including how genetic vulnerabilities to children's mental health issues may interact with ACEs, b) discussing emerging results from program evaluation data examining ACEs questionnaire scores for a sub-sample of CAAMHP service users in relation to diagnoses and other measures of mental health and wellness and c) discussing how one clinical team (i.e., early years 0-5 program) at CAAMHP has successfully integrated ACEs into their assessment procedure and how this informs the clinical practice of their team.