DrT's Blog from the Health After Trauma Project

Know Your ACE Score

By

Ellen Taliaferro, MD

Can the woes and traumas of your yesterdays take a toll on your state of health today? Indeed they can and do.   At least that's what our grandmothers always seemed to know.

Now, thanks in large part to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, medical research validates this concept. Dr. Vincent Felitti, Founder of the Department of Preventive Medicine in Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, and his colleagues at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have identified ten adverse childhood experiences that correlate with adult health status half a century later.

What are adverse childhood experiences? To date ten have been identified in children younger than 18 who grow up in a household with:

• Recurrent physical abuse
• Recurrent emotional abuse
• Sexual abuse
• An alcohol or drug abuser
• An incarcerated household member
• Someone who is chronically depressed, suicidal, institutionalized or mentally ill
• Mother being treated violently
• One or no parents
• Emotional or physical neglect

Any one of the above ten items receives a score of one, no matter how many times it occurred. For instance, if you were sexually abused once or many times as a child, your ACE score is one and only one. The higher your ACE score, the more likely you will be to experience a wide range of health and social problems in your adult life.

Recently, Dr. Felitti spoke in San Mateo, CA, and presented an overview of the findings from the ACE Study. He noted that the official questionnaire for determining an ACE score was several pages long and needed to be professionally evaluated. However, recently the ACE Study Group developed a "self-test" version of the questionnaire. This survey has only ten questions and can be explored and taken by clicking the link below.

Click here to download a copy of the ACE survey

 

Tip of the Day: Protect Your Mobile Phone Now

Do you have too much to do in too little time? If so, you might find my learning experience of yesterday valuable.

Phone call interruptions punctuated all of yesterday. Every last call was a business "cold call."  Verizon Wireless tech support told me that there was no way to block incoming calls but did suggest that I could use the national do-not-call database to protect my cell phone from unsolicited calls.
Of course, I didn't remember how to access this database--fortunately Verizon Tech Support knew how to do it: visit the national hot line website to add your cell phone. Click here to do this now.

Enjoy your new peace and quiet.

Health After Trauma June 2007 eZine

The June issue of this eZine is out. To see it, you can click here.

Keller Center Fundraising Event

"It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when your eyes are swollen shut from last night's beating." --Denise Brown

Yesterday, Denise Brown of the Nicole Brown Foundation spoke at a Benefit to support the Keller Center for Family Violence Intervention. The Keller Center is the medical forensic unit of the San Mateo Medical Center in San Mateo, CA. In 2006, the Keller Center served 239 children and 111 adults.

Denise began her talk with, "On June 12, 1994, I lost my best friend and sister..." She proceeded to tell how she and the rest of the family did not know that Nicole was being battered by O.J. while still alive. They only learned of the abuse by reading Nicole's journal after she died.

Today Denise's mission focuses on helping the general public to become aware of the secret presence of domestic violence that might be existing in the lives of their loved ones. Her personal story opens eyes, hearts, and mind to this issue. Your can learn more about her and the work of the Nicole Brown Foundation by visiting their website.

The Keller Center is dedicated to overcoming the epidemic of domestic violence which takes a serious toll on the health of its victims and survivors. You can learn more about the Keller Center by clicking here.

(See the article telling of Denise's impending visit before her speech by clicking here.)

Is Your Doctor Clueless About Domestic Violence and Its Impact on Health?

Domestic violence (DV), now referred to in the health care field as intimate partner violence (IPV) takes a tremendous toll on the health of IPV victims and survivors. Health problems associated with IPV range from serious injury or death to the day to day health problems. Examples of the day to day problems consist of chronic pain syndromes, multiple gynecological problems, and pregnancy-related problems.
Physicians in every specialty of medicine see patients whose lives are affected by violence.

Physicians and health care professionals play an unique role in the lives of patients affected by violence. Still, many physicians don't ask about the role of violence in their patient's lives. Multiple reasons exist to explain why health professionals don't ask about the presence of IPV in their patient's lives. Eight common reasons are listed in Table 1-3 of our book, The Physician's Guide to Intimate Partner Violence. Here are three common reasons:

• A belief that IPV doesn't happen in their patient population
• A belief that what happens in the home should stay in the home
• A belief that the patient can just leave an abusive home situation if she just wants to.

You can help enlighten the physicians and healthcare givers in your circle of friends and concern by giving them The Physician's Guide to Intimate Partner Violence. This book, a fast and easy read for the busy professional, will explain the paradoxes that exist in the arena of IPV and will provide busy professionals with tools for IPV recognition and intervention. When you give this book to the doctors and healthcare providers in your life, you give them and their patients the gift of health and better lives. No longer will your doctor by clueless, thanks to you.