You can't change your childhood,
but you can change your life.
You can't change your childhood,
but you can change your life.
You can't change your childhood,
but you can change your life.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Coalition of West Virginia is working to improve the health and well-being of all West Virginians through understanding, overcoming and preventing ACEs. We're also committed to raising awareness about Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) that can offset negative experiences and fuel resiliency.
We’re rooting for you!
Together, we are stronger.
Together. we can heal.
Together, we can not only survive, but thrive!
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Coalition of West Virginia is working to improve the health and well-being of all West Virginians through understanding, overcoming and preventing ACEs. We're also committed to raising awareness about Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) that can offset negative experiences and fuel resiliency.
We’re rooting for you!
Together, we are stronger.
Together. we can heal.
Together, we can not only survive, but thrive!
All West Virginians will thrive in a compassionate community that supports lifelong healthy development.
To improve the health and well-being of all West Virginians by reducing the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and preventing their occurrence.
Advocate for resources to support best practices to reduce the burden of ACEs. Coordinate across agency boundaries to deliver the best possible services to reduce and mitigate ACEs. Educate the public and influential citizens/leaders on the role of ACEs in the present health and economic problems facing our state.
The term “ACEs” is an acronym for Adverse Childhood Experiences. It originated in a groundbreaking study conducted in 1995 by the Centers for Disease Control and the Kaiser Permanente health care organization in California. In that study, “ACEs” referred to three specific kinds of adversity children faced in the home environment—various forms of physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction.
The key findings of dozens of studies using the original ACEs data found there is a powerful, persistent correlation between the more ACEs experienced and the greater the chance of poor outcomes later in life, including dramatically increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, substance abuse, smoking, poor academic achievement, time out of work, and early death.
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.
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.
For those who have experienced ACEs, there are a range of possible responses that can help, including therapeutic sessions with mental health professionals, meditation, physical exercise, spending time in nature, and many others.
The ideal approach, however, is to preventthe need for these responses by reducing the sources of stress in people’s lives. This can happen by helping to meet their basic needs or providing other services.
Likewise, fostering strong, responsive relationships between children and their caregivers, and helping children and adults build core life skills, can help to buffer a child from the effects of toxic stress.
ACEs affect people at all income and social levels, and can have serious, costly impact across the lifespan. No one who’s experienced significant adversity (or many ACEs) is irreparably damaged, though we need to acknowledge trauma’s effects on their lives. By reducing families’ sources of stress, providing children and adults with responsive relationships, and strengthening the core life skills we all need to adapt and thrive, we can prevent and counteract lasting harm.
If you see someone falling behind, walk beside them. If you see someone being ignored, find a way include them. If someone has been knocked down, lift them up.
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