Give Your Support
Policy
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are correlated with later life mental health, substance abuse, health risk behaviors, and many serious health consequences, along with the associated high individual and societal costs (Felitti et al, 1998; Larkin & Records, 2007).
The World Health Organization (WHO) has prioritized prevention of child maltreatment and supports addressing adverse childhood experiences to improve public health. Providing recommendations for policymakers, this meeting report states: "To raise ACE awareness and bring these different sectors on board, a clear presentation that simply conveys the essence of the ACE concept, consequences and implications should be developed. Once this is available, participants would take every opportunity to deliver the presentation to their colleagues, peers and other potential interest groups" (p.9). This website serves as a way to "link policymakers, program directors, practitioners, and researchers involved in the implementation and evaluation of ACE response strategies around the world" (p.10).
Thus, we hope to bring people together across sectors. While many policymakers, program directors, and practitioners recognize the relevance of ACEs to treatment and services in each of these areas, most human service agencies in the United States continue to operate as separate and distinct entities.
- Discrete agencies provide substance abuse, mental health, health, homeless, and criminal justice services.
- People who are disadvantaged and experiencing multiple problems are challenged to navigate this fragmented service delivery system.
- ACE research speaks to the need for professionals working together and calls policymakers to transform our systems of care.
- ACE response can help meet national health goals outlined in Healthy People 2020
- Recovery-oriented systems of care can play an important role in ACE response.
- The Washington State Family Policy Council is a state level interagency council that has partnered with community public health and safety networks to support community-driven change in response to ACE knowledge. The notion of human capital development, or the production of abilities and skills, explains why preventing and addressing adverse childhood experiences is profitable.
Intervention programs with disadvantaged children already demonstrate significant benefit-cost ratios $5.70 for every dollar spent on a child by the time the child became an adult aged 27, and $8.70 when projected into the rest of their livesCost savings in crime reduction is also notable. Each new developmental stage begins with the skills gained in the previous stage. Costs of later investments are reduced by early investments in younger children
Families, schools, and other systems play a strong role in human capital development.
By integrating knowledge of effective helping approaches with ACE research, we can point to cost-savings associated with ACE prevention and intervention across the lifespan. Identification of policy examples supportive of ACE response will guide policymakers seeking to save money by supporting ACE response.
Program evaluation can further demonstrate how comprehensive "ACE-informed" programming, designed to mobilize resilience and recovery, serves to defray costly ACE consequences and prevent ACE transmission to the next generation. The SOAR approach can be applied for the ongoing evaluation of ACE-informed programming.