Why ACEs Matter

In the 1990s, Vincent Felitti, head of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente, conducted interviews with people who had left an obesity clinic. He discovered that a majority of the 286 people he interviewed had experienced childhood sexual abuse. The research went on to find that a person’s cumulative ACEs score, or traumatic experiences in childhood, had a direct adverse health outcome in adulthood. This conversation with Lori is for people providing support - interested in how the ACE study impacts the way we interact and support people, not by looking at someone to “fix,” but as someone to understand and identify their resilience. 

Lori Watkins, LISW, is the Director Behavioral Health Services at the Clermont County Board of Developmental Disabilities