summer 2023 week 6 response

Response  1

 

Excellent post! Adverse childhood events (ACEs) can be defined as traumatic experiences that occur before an individual reaches the adulthood age (18 years) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). ACEs usually have serious negative impacts on child’s development, with the effects often progressing to adulthood. The most commonly reported types of ACEs include all forms of child abuse and neglect (both physical and emotional neglect), such as domestic violence, parental separation or divorce, parental substance use/dependence, and incarceration. ACEs may also include some complex situations that cause trauma in children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). For example, some children may undergo adversities due to one of the parents having a mental illness. Also, children whose parents have separated or divorced encounter a lot of problems, including emotional challenges and physical neglect.

Findings from previous studies and evidence-based practice shown a significant correlation between the different ACEs that an individual experienced and various negative outcomes/impacts in adulthood, including mental health, poor physical, risky behaviors, and substance use (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS, n.d). Therefore, the more adversities experienced during childhood, the higher the risk/chances of these negative outcomes. I agree with you that childhood adversity may result in upsetting and intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, sleep disturbances, and hypervigilance. All these consequences or outcomes of trauma usually contribute to social, interpersonal, and occupational dysfunction. Stress usually have an effect on the genes that regulate various physiological processes/functions in the body (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS, n.d). For this reason, health care professionals should assess the patient to determine how their stress can affect other physiological activities in the body and overall quality of life.

References

 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). About the CDC-Kaiser ACE study: Major findings. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). (n.d). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/overview/framework/aces/

 

 

Response 2

Great post this week. Reading this book was very eye opening for me. I have seen patients dealing with trauma for the past two semesters and find them to be extremely resilient in how they overcome adversity. I am now very aware of the importance of getting a complete history with each patient and seeing what their life was like in the past. Some may be resistant and others may not see where it is important.  I am very aware now of the importance if working with children to recognize signs of maltreatment. The term maltreatment when used with children is when they are not provided with adequate care to meet their needs and this action or lack of action has the potential to cause them deficiencies in physical, mental, social and spiritual development (van Ijendoorn et al., 2020). The way a child is treated directly affects their health in a number of ways and as we learned the stress response is valuable and necessary but should not be triggered all the time and that is what many of our patients have experienced or are experiencing.  I think it is so important that we realize when we tell a patient to use relaxation techniques this is not always possible and they need more than just education on them. I know that I will be very aware and make sure that they receive the follow-up care they need.

 

It is important that I understand that resiliency is a process that a person has to progress through as they go through a trauma. Each individual have their own unique set of traits that allow them to overcome their trauma. People have promotive and protective traits that allow them to move through a trauma (Unger, 2019).  Understanding this allows me to know that everyone is different and that all though everyone that had a trauma in childhood will not have an addiction or mental illness but it can affect their physical well-being. I think education at the initial meeting is every important and I will talk to each patient about it. The research is now leaning in the direction of the environment of the patient.  If a patient is taken out of an environment that is causing them trauma they can recover better if surrounded by support. Those that experienced childhood trauma can go on to influence risky behavior in adolescence if not taken out of the environment (Unger, 2019).

 

References

 

Ungar, M. (2019). Designing resilience research: Using multiple methods to investigate risk exposure,

 

promotive and protective processes, and contextually relevant outcomes for children and youth.

 

  Child abuse & neglect, 96-104.

 

van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans‐Kranenburg, M. J., Coughlan, B., & Reijman, S. (2020). Annual

 

Research Review: Umbrella synthesis of meta‐analyses on child maltreatment antecedents and

 

interventions: differential susceptibility perspective on risk and resilience. Journal of child

 

psychology and psychiatry, 61(3), 272-290.