Lecture Summaries
Lecture: Adverse Childhood Experience
Adverse Childhood experience is a term that describes all types of abuse, neglect and other traumatic experiences such as household dysfunction that occur to individuals during their teenage years. Adverse childhood experience is categorized into abuse, neglect and household dysfunction. Abuse and neglect can be physical, emotional, or social. Household dysfunction can be upshot from incidences such as divorce, and mother treated violently, substance abuse, mental illness or incarcerated relative. It is revealed that a healthy relationship exists between adult well-being and adult trauma. This, according to the research conducted by Kaiser ACE, which included a survey of more than 17,000 adults to find out their teenage experiences and their current health status and behaviours. Therefore, the research confirmed that what is recognised as a common disorder in adulthood medicine and psychiatry are possibly the consequences of what people failed to acknowledge or address in childhood. ACE can have diverse effects on an individual’s endocrine, immune, neurologic and epigenetic systems. However, Dr Grant has shown interest in helping teenagers to deal with some of the effects of ACE through her experience from practising paediatrics over 20 years and interaction with several patients and the raising of her daughter.
Furthermore, research has shown that individuals who get exposed to several ACEs are at a higher risk of suffering from cognitive and social development impairment. Those individuals are also at a high likelihood of abusing drugs and other substances, getting unintended pregnancies, suffering depressions and other injuries. However, studies have shown that not every individual who experiences a rough childhood grows up to be unhealthy or maladjusted. Some teenagers are less vulnerable to the negative impacts of their environment, and they are unlikely to carry stress with them into their adulthood. Additionally, other teenagers often get used to handling parents’ outbursts and mood swings, and they end up developing a keen ability to detect others’ emotions and picking up on verbal cues.
An individual who has adverse childhood experience is likely to age and get sick quickly. Hence, such an individual needs to be encouraged to sleep more often, go for exercise for two times a day, have a nutritional diet, those around him/ her should be mindful of what they express to the individual and offer mental support. Adequate sleep and exercise will help the individual to decrease the circulation of hormones in the body. Also, regulate inflammation and help the individual to control their stress. Encouraging mindfulness and meditation will help ana individual have positive thoughts since mindfulness involves focusing on one particular activity or an object. In the sate of meditating, one gain the power of paying attention and awareness to what the soul emotional, mental stability, and the body get to be stable.
It is vital to treat and control the effects of adverse childhood experience. Otherwise, an individual will have a chronic cycle of poor childhood development, to impact of adverse childhood experience, to long term consequences. Therefore, even though one can treat and control ACE, addressing issues that cause adverse childhood experience will do more good than actual results. Prevention of ACE would include promoting social norms that are against violence and adversity through public campaign education and legislative approaches that deal with violence. Also, teaching skills such as parenting and family relationship approaches, socio-emotional learning. Family relationship skills will help children to grow in loving, caring, and violence-free families. Additionally, strengthening financial support to families will ensure there is an economic security. Financial security will reduce the rate of neglection of children due to poverty.