How We Help

Research Support

 

I. We propose to advance the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) research agenda led by Robert Anda, M.D. and Vincent Felitti, M.D. in the following ways:

  • Serve as a knowledge broker and capacity builder among scholars, program directors, practitioners, and policymakers across professions
  • Raise awareness of ACEs and associated human and societal costs
  • Spearhead evaluations of ACE-informed policies, programs, and practices
  • Promote and foster ACE-informed research
  • Connect teams of researchers
  • Initiate research of ACE prevalence among homeless people, veterans, the criminal justice population, and other disadvantaged groups
  • Integrate ACE research with relevant prevention and intervention research related to each ACE outcome and advance ACE-informed research addictions, obesity, mental health treatment, health risk behaviors, co-occurring disorders service system integration, parenting, community development developing, informing, and fostering Healthy Environments and Relationships that Support (HEARTS)
  • Conduct Integrally-informed research and evaluation of HEARTS
  • Attract funding for pilot studies, program evaluations, media campaigns, community education

II. History:

1994 partnership of the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente Population-based screening of ACE history of adult medical patients (Felitti, Anda, Nordenberg, Williamson, Spitz, Edwards, Koss, & Marks, 1998)
Powerful link between childhood emotional trauma and adult health risk behaviors, biomedical disease, and leading causes of death is uncovered Illustrates the need for an integrative conceptual framework to address ACEs as an underlying syndrome.

III. Current Projects and Next Steps:

  • ACEs information clearinghouse development in partnership with Prevent Child Abuse America.
  • Collect and share ACE-relevant social science research on this website.
  • Utilize this website as an integrative tool to engage and connect researchers, program directors and policy leaders across departments and professions.
  • Highlight ACE implications for relevant research, professional education, services, and policies.
  • Publish findings of ACE Prevalence among Homeless people and continue to explore ACEs among a representative sample of New Yorkers.
  • Implement new research exploring ACEs, health, social networks, and coping among older adults living in poverty.
  • Mobilize this website to draw interest to HEARTS, attract funders, and inform the creation of a Global HEARTS Center.
  • Build community resilience and monitor impact through participation in the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities national learning community, coordinated by the Health Federation of Philadelphia with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The California Endowment.
  • Promote Service Outcomes Action Research (SOAR) as a useful approach to evaluate ACE response programming and support ongoing program development (these handouts show how SOAR can inform ACE response).    

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