Dr. Vincent Felitti, a lead researcher behind the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, spoke about the impact childhood trauma can have on people later in life during his keynote address Tuesday at the Handle with Care conference at the Charleston Civic Center.
We’ve gone after the suppliers — the pharmacies, the wholesalers and the dealers.
And we’re constantly dealing with the symptoms — in the strained criminal justice system, the overcrowded jails and prisons and at the under-equipped mental health care and substance abuse treatment providers.
Dr. Vincent Felitti, one of the lead researchers behind the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences study, said that another way to combat West Virginia’s daunting drug problem is addressing the root cause of the problem: why West Virginians want drugs in the first place. West Virginia has the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation.
Felitti, who was a keynote speaker at the “Handle with Care” conference Tuesday, said it may be comforting to say “the reason my kid’s buying those street drugs is because there’s a dealer on the next block.”
“It’s a lot more complicated to say my kid’s buying antidepressants on the street,” he said.
Child Protective Services workers, child advocates, law enforcement, medical professionals, prosecutors, social workers, therapists and others listened to Felitti’s presentation. More than 400 people from 17 states, but mostly from West Virginia, are attending the Handle with Care conference Tuesday through Thursday of this week.
[For more of this story, written by Erin Beck, go to http://www.wvgazettemail.com/n...s-trauma-expert-says]
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