Authored by Amanda Dubey-Zerka. Amanda, LMSW, is the Director of Continuing Education and Clinical Instructor for MSU School of Social Work. Amanda is TF-CBT certified and has over 10 years of experience working with children, teens, and adults who have survived trauma. Amanda took part in the master training for ACE in September 2017, as part of the Michigan ACE Initiative.

 At the end of last year, the Michigan Association of Health Plans Foundation (MAHPF) received a two-year grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to support an initiative, “Creating Healing Communities: Addressing Adverse Childhood Experience in Michigan.”

Under the Grant Award, the MAHP Foundation will provide:

  • Increased and Sustained Awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and impact on Michigan’s future health care, education, law enforcement.
  • Regional Training that will produce a cohort of individuals qualified to link ACE Screening outcomes with community interventions.
  • Continuing education opportunities for Michigan’s health providers to gain knowledge and skill.
  • Development and Implementation of State policy that will enable the use of the ACE screening tool as Children receive health screenings and services.

This effort will be guided by a Michigan ACE Initiative Steering Committee composed of representatives from a broad array of health, education, and law enforcement organizations.

ACEs are serious childhood traumas that result in toxic stress, which can damage the developing brain of a child and affect overall health. This toxic stress may prevent child from learning and from playing in a healthy way with other children and can result in long-term health problems.

The ACE Study is unique because it provides the potential to understand how multiple forms of childhood stressors can affect many important public health problems. Challenges to address population health, social determinants of health disparities, as well as the need to create integrated delivery systems are at the core of how ACE must be addressed in Michigan.

Populations with an ACE score of 4 or more are:

  • Twice as likely to smoke
  • Seven times more likely to be alcoholics
  • Six times more likely to have had sex before age 15
  • Twice as likely to have been diagnosed with cancer
  • Twice as likely to have heart disease
  • Four times as likely to suffer from emphysema or chronic bronchitis
  • Twelve times as likely to have attempted suicide
  • Five times more likely to be involved in interpersonal violence or get raped
  • Ten times more likely to have injected street drugs

Fortunately, children are resilient if given an opportunity, and that is the objective being pursued by the MAHP Foundation. Our failure to address ACE is being absorbed by the adult health care issues, costs and dysfunctions. By pursuing a comprehensive and long-term initiative to address ACE, Michigan can create change. The Michigan Association of Health Plans Foundation grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund launches that comprehensive effort.

 

The MAHP Foundation received funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to support the Creating Healing Communities: A Statewide Initiative to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Michigan. Learn more here.