Addressing ACE

Negative experiences endured as a child can have an impact throughout life.

Skye Berger of Door Opener Academy spoke Friday about Adverse Childhood Experiences to a gathering that included local Department of Child Services employees, healthcare professionals, law enforcement officials and others at Indiana University Health Jay Hospital. Her presentation marked the first Indiana Youth Institute Youth Worker Café in Jay County, in partnership with the hospital, Meridian Health Services and Jay County Prevent Child Abuse Council.

“Since we serve humans, we need to know where they’ve been and what they’ve been through,” she said.

Berger is the chief encouragement officer and executive creative coach for Open Door and a former Indiana DCS employee.

She discussed Adverse Childhood Experiences — an event that was unhappy, unpleasant or unhelpful — in the context of a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser-Permanente.

She noted the 10 most common types of those experiences, which call into three categories:

•Abuse — Emotional and physical

•Household dysfunction — Mother treated violently, substance abuse, mental illness, separation/divorce and incarcerated household member

•Neglect — Emotional and physical

She noted statistics from the study that show the rate of behavioral issues for children who have experienced four or more of those adverse experiences is 51 percent. That compares to just 3 percent for those who have an ACE “score” of zero.

Those who have an ACE score of six or higher also face a significantly decreased life expectancy.

It is important for children and adults alike to address the adverse experiences they have gone through, she added.

“Stress that is not addressed turns into anxiety,” Berger said. “Anxiety that is not addressed then often turns into a trauma.”

While there is no single formula for helping those who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences, Berger offered a few resources. Two of those were online — acestoohigh.com and acesconnection.com. She added that “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk should be required reading.

In a general sense, though, she noted that one of the keys to helping is to “be present” and to make an effort to figure out what will be effective individual by individual.

“Our children are hurting,” Berger said. “Our adults are hurting.”