On Tuesday evening UNM Health Sciences Center held a symposium to address the issues of childhood adversity affecting New Mexico.
Dr. Andrew Hsi, professor of pediatrics at the UNM School of Medicine and a key figure in UNM’s fight against childhood adversity, walked on stage for his presentation with a large, black trash bag thrown over his shoulder.
Hsi dropped the bag on the floor as he said that it was a visual presentation of the burden children and families carry with them after adverse childhood experiences.
Being involved in the field of childhood and family adversity for over 27 years with FOCUS, a division of UNM’s Center for Development and Disability, Hsi knows the weight all too well.
A staggering 60 percent of kids and adults in New Mexico have had at least one adverse childhood experience in their lives.
Hsi defines adverse childhood experiences, or ACE’s, as physical, sexual and emotional abuse or neglect that a child faces, within or outside the family unit.
Family dysfunctions, exposure to substance abuse, mentally ill parents, suicide attempts, violent treatment of a maternal parent, a parent’s imprisonment or the loss of a biological parent also fall within the ACE realm, he said.
[For more of this story, written by Hannah Eisenberg, go to http://www.dailylobo.com/artic...-adversity-symposium]
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