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This article is the third in a series exploring how research into adverse childhood experiences – or ACEs – is helping researchers, therapists, parents, educators and the medical community better understand the lasting effects of trauma on mental health:

Prevention is the mantra of modern medicine and public health. Benjamin Franklin said it himself: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Unfortunately, childhood adversities such as abuse and neglect cannot be prevented by vaccinations. As we now know, a large proportion of adults go through adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and can exhibit symptoms such as substance abuse. The symptoms seen in adults can in turn expose the next generation to adverse outcomes – creating a cycle that’s hard to break.

However, we can limit the impact of ACEs on future generations by taking a close look at what we are doing today – not only for our children, but for ourselves, as adults. Therefore, to prevent adversities for children, we must address the healing and recovery of trauma in adults.

The ACE Study, launched in the 1990s, offered a groundbreaking look at how childhood trauma can impact health decades later.

More than two-thirds of the 17,000-plus adults in our study reported at least one ACE, such as divorce, neglect or domestic violence in the household. These adults were at a greater risk for numerous negative health and behavioral outcomes.

When I present this research, I often get questions about the adult survivors. What has helped these adults survive to tell their childhood histories?

The ACE Study was not conceptualized to examine resilience. But I had always been curious about what helped these trauma survivors thrive. I wanted to understand not only what led to their ill health later in life, but what led some of them to report positive health, despite their backgrounds.

In 2013, my colleagues and I published a study examining approximately 5,000 adults from the original ACE study who reported at least one childhood adversity. We focused on strategies that have been proven to promote good health – such as exercise, abstaining from smoking, access to emotional support and completing education at the high school level or higher.

Indeed, each of the factors listed was associated with reports of excellent, very good or good health among adult survivors. Depending on the factor, there was a 30 to 80 percent increased likelhood that the adult would report positive well-being. Survivors who had a college education were 2.1 times more likely to report positive well-being than those with no high school diploma. These findings were after considering their chronic conditions. We also found that the four factors were associated with a lower likelihood to report depressive feelings.

When I repeated this study with a sample population of adult trauma survivors from four states and the District of Columbia, I found nearly identical results.

What’s more, the greater number of health-promoting activities a person participated in, the better their well-being seemed to be. Adult survivors with at least two factors were 1.5 times more likely to report good to excellent health. Those who reported all four factors were 4.3 times more likely to report good to excellent health, compared to those who engaged in none or one, even after considering their chronic conditions.

Read the full article on TheConversation.com.

Helping kids cope may not be easy, but county officials are hoping the answer is child’s play. “Children have their own language,” said Sarah Holland, peer support specialist at Crossroads Area Veterans Center. Saturday, the Crossroads Area Veterans Center will debut the first session of a new therapy program just for kids, Holland said. Although play therapy, which is free for children and their parents, is currently only open to the children of women who have served in the military or who are spouses or widows to veterans, Holland said the program may expand. “If it’s successful, we can do more,” she said.

Play therapy will be funded by the Veteran’s Mental Health Grant, which funds numerous other services at the Crossroads Area Veterans Center. This year’s $75,000 grant, which ends June 30, provided about $1,000 for one month of play therapy services from Brenda Whitfield, South Texas Christian Ministries. That vastly discounted price was provided by Whitfield as a favor to the veterans center, Holland said. Whitfield will help kids work through their issues by observing them as they play with her collection of age-appropriate toys, Holland said.Because kids can sometimes have difficulty expressing their thoughts and feelings, observing playtime can act as a window into their minds.

Although the center offers a variety of mental health programs, such as equine and yoga therapies, play therapy marks the center’s first program designed specifically for children, Holland said. That approach is about helping not only veterans but also family members who live with and love them, she said. “If the veteran has PTSD, their anger issues roll out, and that affects not only the veteran but also the family,” Holland said. “We just want to care for the whole family unit.”

Read more on VictoriaAdvocate.com.

Adolescent males of color treated for violent injury and discharged from an urban pediatric emergency department (ED) overwhelmingly identified a need for mental health care, according to research from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)’s Violence Intervention Program (VIP), published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“We know that it is vitally important to listen to the voices and needs of youth,” said lead study author Rachel Myers, PhD, research scientist at CHOP. “This work highlights how adolescent males receiving care in the ED with what may be physically minor injuries are suffering significant trauma. We also know that with real support, young people are resilient, go back to school, and go on to graduate and pursue their goals.”

The study examined data from 49 adolescent males who were treated at CHOP’s ED between January 2012 and August 2016 after suffering a violence-related injury, typically from peer assaults, and elected to enroll in VIP. Participants, predominantly young men of color between the ages of 12 and 17 years old, identified their needs and goals for recovery at intake and during the course of their participation in case management.

At intake to the CHOP VIP, nearly two-thirds of the adolescents reported significant traumatic stress symptoms. Most (75 percent) of the injuries were non-penetrating.

Nearly 90 percent of participants felt they needed mental health services, including therapy and suicide counseling. More than half (60 percent) said they needed legal help, including obtaining police reports. About half (56 percent) also identified a need for psychosocial support, and said they would attend peer group sessions with other injured youth. Adolescent males treated and discharged from the ED were significantly more likely to identify safety needs, such as addressing peer relationships in school and community, as compared to those admitted to the hospital, who may have experienced more serious injuries.

VIP utilizes resources provided by CHOP’s Violence Prevention Initiative, an evidence-based effort to protect youth from violence and promote healing. Learn more at Chop.edu/violence.

Read more on EurekAlert.org. Read the abstract of the study.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is accepting applications to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice (FACJJ). Composed of members of state advisory groups on juvenile justice, the committee advises the President and Congress on matters related to juvenile justice, evaluates the progress and accomplishments of juvenile justice activities and projects, and advises the OJJDP Administrator on the work of OJJDP.

Candidates must be a member of their state’s juvenile justice advisory group (SAG) at the time of application and throughout their entire term. Applicants must also be from one of the following jurisdictional groups:

• Youth: This applicant can be from any state and must be a youth member of their SAG.
• Group 9: New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
• Group 4: Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri.

Selected applicants will begin their term on October 1, 2017, and serve for 2 years with the possibility that their term will be renewed for an additional 2 years.

Download the application and email the completed form to OJJDP no later than Friday, June 30, 2017. For questions or concerns, contact Jeff Slowikowski at Jeff.Slowikowski@usdoj.gov or Melissa Kanaya at Melissa.Kanaya@usdoj.gov.

May 19th is National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Between 2010 and 2014, the Asian population in the United States grew around 11%, more than three times as fast as the total U.S. population. During the same period, the number of Asians receiving an HIV diagnosis increased by 36%, driven primarily by an increase in HIV diagnoses among Asian gay and bisexual men. Asians, who make up 6% of the population, continue to account for only a small percentage of new HIV diagnoses in the United States:

• Asians accounted for 2% (959) of the 40,040 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and 6 dependent areas in 2015.
• Of Asians diagnosed with HIV infection in 2015, 86% (820) were men and 14% (132) were women.
• Gay and bisexual men accounted for 89% (729) of all HIV diagnoses among Asian men in 2015. Among Asian women, 95% (125) of HIV diagnoses were attributed to heterosexual contact.e
• From 2010 to 2014, HIV diagnoses increased by 47% among Asian gay and bisexual men in the United States.
• In 2015, 326 Asians were diagnosed with AIDS, representing 2% of the 18,538 AIDS diagnoses in the United States and 6 dependent areas.

Read more on CDC.gov.

Although Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI) account for a very small percentage of new HIV diagnoses, HIV affects NHOPI in ways that are not always apparent because of their small population sizes:

• In 2015, 79 NHOPI were diagnosed with HIV, representing less than 1% of new HIV diagnoses in the United States. NHOPI make up 0.2% of the population.
• NHOPI had the third-highest rate of HIV diagnoses (14.1 per 100,000 people) by race/ethnicity in 2015, behind blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos.b
• Gay and bisexual menc accounted for 78% (62) of HIV diagnoses among NHOPI in 2015.
• The annual number of HIV diagnoses among NHOPI declined 22% from 2010 to 2014.
• In 2015, 22 NHOPI were diagnosed with AIDS in the United States.

Read more on CDC.gov.

Read more about the day and how you can get involved on AIDS.gov. Read more about creating awareness on BanyanTreeProject.org.

While most of America has largely recovered from the Great Recession, a new report from the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI) shows that black women in the rural south are trailing far behind the rest of the nation, living in an impoverished space where entire industries are shuttering factories and shedding jobs, world-shrinking broadband Internet is a novelty, and a lack of infrastructure stands in the way of education and proper nutrition.

The report uses existing data and features interviews with more than 200 families to examine the overall well-being of black women in nine rural counties across the Black Belt in Alabama and Georgia and in the Mississippi Delta. In these areas 20 percent of the population has lived in persistent poverty for the last five years, as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture. The results show that when it comes to economic security, health, education and connection to the rest of the world, these women—and their children—are not afforded opportunities on par with their peers.

In fact, the report revealed that about nine out of 10 of these women are living in poverty. “And many of these women are heads of household, so we can extrapolate that there are an overwhelming number of children who are also impoverished,” said report author Dr. C. Nicole Mason, who is also the executive director at the Center for Research & Policy in the Public Interest, during a press briefing about the report.

Read more on BlackAIDS.org. Read the full report.