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California PACEs Action

Pipeline to Prison May Start with Childhood Trauma [CalHealthReport.org]

 

By Leah Bartos

Pediatric patients giving their health histories at the Center for Youth Wellness, a health clinic in the impoverished Bayview Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, are asked for more than the usual details about allergies and current prescriptions. Doctors there need a different kind of medical history: did their parents use drugs or have a mental illness? Were any family member in jail or prison? Have their parents divorced or separated? Have they suffered from physical, emotional or sexual abuse?

The questions may seem beyond the scope of a primary care physician, but decades of research have solidified the link between such childhood trauma and poor outcomes later in life. The number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) determines the patient’s risk for a wide range of health problems including heart disease, chronic bronchitis or emphysema, diabetes, severe obesity, substance abuse, suicide attempts, cancers of all kinds and early death. The more ACEs a patient has, the higher their risk for chronic disease and a shorter than average lifespan.

Read the full story by Leah Bartos here: http://www.calhealthreport.org...th-childhood-trauma/

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