familyresourcesblog

Guest Blogger –  Christine Gradert, Sr. Vice President, Family Resources

Many of the clients we see at Family Resources have suffered physical and emotional trauma from domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and neglect, and other experiences that leave deep and lasting scars on the body and the mind.

When children go through extreme trauma, it’s called an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). In recent years, various sciences and disciplines have come together – sociology, psychology, public health, the science of human brain development, and others – and a realization was made about how extreme stress experienced in childhood carries with it terrible consequences if it is not diagnosed and treated.

Most of us go through Adverse Childhood Experiences, but the ACE Study (co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) developed a list of traumatic experiences and clearly revealed the correlation between the number of ACEs and the likelihood of health and social problems as a child grows into adulthood.

It makes perfect sense. If a child spends years wondering if the next footsteps coming down the hall are bringing pain and violence, it triggers a “fight or flight” syndrome, an intense physical and psychological reaction to survive. But it doesn’t just have to be violent abuse. Adverse Childhood Experiences can include neglect, sexual abuse, divorce, witnessing your mother being abused, parental drug and alcohol addiction, and more.

For many children who experience extreme trauma growing up, the body’s natural ability to regulate itself malfunctions. The child may remain in a constant fight or flight syndrome even in a safe place – a classroom, for example. Their bodies and minds perceive threats everywhere. They don’t believe they can trust anyone because the people in their lives who they were supposed to trust, such as their parents, have hurt them.

This explains a lot of the problems we see in our schools, on our streets, and in our society. We all pay a high price for physical and emotional trauma that is not diagnosed and treated. As teens and adults, those with more ACEs in their past fail to complete an education, find it difficult to find or keep a job, experience more domestic violence, emotional and health disorders, anger and violence, and suicide. They are more likely to need social services, welfare, healthcare, police involvement, and are incarcerated at higher rates. As taxpayers and as citizens hoping to live in strong communities, we all pay a price.

Family Resources works with some of the nation’s top experts in Trauma Informed Care. We are actively convening stakeholders in our community in professions that deal directly with trauma survivors – education, business, healthcare, the courts, social agencies, governments, and others – to develop our collective ability to recognize, diagnose, and treat children and adults who are suffering because of past trauma. Our goal is to build a Trauma Informed Care community.

Trauma touches all of us. It’s an issue that everyone should understand. To help, we have a new section on our website that includes background on Trauma Informed Care, links to the ACE Study, and video interviews with some of the nation’s leading experts. Visit the page at www.famres.org/tic.html.

How does intense trauma impact children? One of the experts we work closely with, Dr. Robert Macy, explains in this short video, part of an interview you can find on our website.