ACEs: The Biggest Public Health Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years). Research shows that these experiences are linked to a change I the brain that leads to a lifetime of poor outcomes including suicide, chronic diseases (cancer/heart disease), impaired learning, mental illness, obesity, addiction and substance abuse.
Additionally, “the economic and social costs to families, communities and society totals hundreds of billions of dollars each year” according to the CDC. The former head of the American Academy of Pediatrics named ACEs “the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today.”
Yet ACES’s can be prevented and trauma damage to the brain can be healed. Come learn about this important topic that touches upon so many League Advocacy committees’ work to envision what we can do together to create a resilient community.