Caitlin is the Quality Assurance Program Manager for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visitation (MIECHV) program with the Iowa Department of Public Health
1) When did you learn about ACEs, and how did that change your work (or life)?
Dr. Robert Anda spoke in the state of Iowa at an Early Childhood Iowa conference in 2011. At the time, I was an intern with the 1st Five Healthy Mental Development Initiative through the Iowa Department of Public Health. One of the primary goals of the project was to work with physicians to assess for and address early childhood social and emotional wellness. Hearing Dr. Anda explain how adversity has a direct impact on early childhood well-being and how that correlates with life-long struggles added depth to my understanding of the work I was engaged in.
I was also in graduate school at the time, pursuing my MPH, and for weeks I couldn't shake the connections I kept finding in my classes. Studying heart disease, I thought about the impact of ACEs; studying health systems, I imagined how early adversity played a role; while meeting with professors I thought about our collective early experiences and how that shaped our interactions today. I could not stay silent. Knowing what I now knew, thanks to the work of Drs. Anda and Felitti, I felt I had a responsibility to respond.
Luckily, I had the professional support to do so. My preceptor at the time and I brought Dr. Anda back to Iowa and facilitated conversations with physicians about ACEs, we were part of a collective impact partnership to fund the ACEs questions in the Iowa BRFSS, and we were actively engaged in a group that held a successful summit on the impact of ACEs. That group is now called the Central Iowa ACEs Steering Committee (please take a look at our website here:www.iowaaces360.org) and I am delighted to still be involved today. Because of this body of knowledge, I will forever be inspired to find new ways to help children have better, stronger starts to life, help families work toward resilient futures, and work to empower individuals and communities to respond to one another with compassion.
2) What are you currently doing to address ACEs in your work or community?
Currently, I am engaged in the development of ACE training materials. There are still many systems, professionals, families, and individuals in this state and around the nation who have not heard about ACEs or who are hungry to learn about how to respond to this weighty topic. I have worked with a group of stakeholders to develop general training materials to introduce ACEs and I am also working with a group to build a framework for helping professions to introduce ACEs to families, engender hope, build resilience, prevent future ACEs for children and empower families. The overarching message we hope to share is that information about ACEs, resiliency and prevention can be used to strengthen families, build relationships and overcome adversity.
3) Basically, what do you do, and what does your organization do?
At this time, I am the Quality Assurance Program Manager for the state family support team through the Iowa Department of Public Health. My position is funded through the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visitation (MIECHV) program. I oversee data management, quality assurance and continuous quality improvement projects while also providing technical assistance to local family support programs. I also represent our team on the Central Iowa ACEs Steering Committee and have had the pleasure of coordinating a number of exciting projects related to ACEs, some of which I have mentioned previously and others which you can learn more about on our website!
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