Welcome to the frey! If you look back about the time this position paper was originally published I discussed it in an extensive series of blog posts on PACESConnection starting 10//23/22.
Essentially, as all of us who work in the field know, the ACE screen used in the clinical setting has had a powerful, worldwide, catalytic effect, not only bringing people who experienced trauma into treatment, but changing treatment approaches and modalities for the better, and bringing into general worldwide awareness the huge pathogenic potential of child maltreatment.
The American College of Preventive Medicine looking through academic glasses and selecting a few highly structured studies has arrived at a distorted view of this clinical endeavor. Their attitude and judgement was reinforced by important factors which were beyond their capacity to perceive but are crucial barriers to optimal care for this condition and its evaluation in the real world:
There are 5 main problems retarding the knowledge and practice of effective treatment for the trauma of child abuse and neglect. The American College of Preventive Medicine could make a much better contribution to health policy and to remediating the effects of child abuse and neglect by pointing out these problems and advocating for needed change, rather than being a naysayer.
(1) The biologically minded NIH avoids funding studies of clinical research into child maltreatment and its remediation ($30 to $50 million/year for the past 8 years - half as much as for cystic fibrosis and one tenth of that spent on childhood cancer).
(2) Anything not pills or surgery gets dumped outside the medical clinic/office as "mental health" or a "social problem" not a medical one. This is the rigid medical silo, represents a narrow mindedness reinforced by technology, and a loss of the human connection.
(3) The same siloing prevents the knowledge, skills, and accomplishments of the psychology, social work, counseling world caring for and treating individual victims of abuse and neglect from impacting the house of medicine.
(4) There is still no mental health parity in US medical care because the resource intensity it requires is too threatening to our commercial insurance system's profits.
(5) There is a massive national shortage of mental health counseling personnel