Unpacking ACEs

In the early 1990s the Director of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Director of Kaiser Permanente, a US Health Insurance company had one of those interesting conversations you have at a conference. The conversation was about the very large cohort of members with complex medical diagnoses and whether there could be a way to prevent these diseases. The two men decided to take up the task and the result was a groundbreaking piece of research called The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study.

Approximately 17,500 members of Kaiser Permanente completed a survey asking them about their medical history and early life experiences. The results were profound. They demonstrated that people who had early life experiences of trauma were much more likely to develop chronic medical conditions.

This session unpacks the results and the impact on individuals and our community. The session can be presented as a half day session where participants will receive a familiarisation of the research and the impact. The full day session provides a much more in depth examination of the results, how trauma impacts individuals and how we can respond and care for those people in our worlds; either professionally or personally, who have experienced childhood trauma.