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Understanding ACEs: Building Self-Healing Communities

Meeker McLeod Sibley Community Health Services is working to address Adverse Childhoon Experiences are the most powerful determinant of the Public’s Health. Adverse Childhood Experience is a public health disaster.  Until very recently, this public health disaster has been hidden from view.  Our society has treated the abuse, maltreatment, violence, and chaotic experiences of our children as an oddity that is adequately dealt with by emergency response systems—child protective services, criminal justice, foster care, and alternative schools—to name a few.  These services are needed and are worthy of support—but they are a dressing on a greater wound.

The prevalence of ACEs in Minnesota—they are common—they are endemic. The biologic impact of Adverse Childhood Experience transcends the traditional boundaries of health and human service systems.  The impact is enormous. The public health impact of ACEs can now only be ignored as a matter of conscious choice. The first step toward healing comes with understanding the problem.  The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study findings represent a paradigm shift in human understanding of the origins of physical, social, mental, and societal health and well-being.  We now know that leading causes of disease and disability, learning and productivity problems, and early death have their roots in the cumulative neurodevelopmental impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Meeker McLeod Sibley Community Health Services has staff trained in the ACE Interface curriculm. Our trainers can provide the Understanding ACEs: Building Self-Healing Communities presentation.  This presentation can provide your agency information about the ACE study, along with neurobiology that explains why ACEs impact people’s lives, and what we can all do to dramatically improve health and resilience for this and future generations.

Please contact Kerry Ward at 320-864-1512 or via email to set up your presentation today.