Strategies for Implementing ACE Screening and Trauma-Informed Care in Clinical Practice
There is growing understanding that cumulative adversity is a root cause of some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive health challenges facing our state and nation. The past year with the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for racial justice have brought this point into sharper focus.
Aurrera Health Group and Health+ Studio are proud to be supporting California’s ACEs Aware initiative, the first-in-the-nation statewide effort to train and educate health care clinicians to effectively screen children and adults for ACEs, provide trauma-informed care and treatment planning, and connect families to the medical and community-based services and supports they need to thrive through a Trauma-informed Network of Care.To date, more than 17,600 people have completed the ACEs Aware training and Medi-Cal (Medicaid) providers screened 300,000 patients between January and September 2020. With the launch of today’s State of CAre campaign, we hope to see significant growth in the numbers over the next several months.
ACE Screening Implementation How-To Guide
The health care setting offers a unique opportunity to help educate patients and families on the impact of ACEs on health and to prevent and treat toxic stress. We recently released a new, first-of-its kind ACE Screening Implementation How-To Guide to give health care clinical teams a full set of tools and considerations so they can successfully integrate ACE screening and trauma-informed care into their practices.The How-To Guide provides practical, step-by-step guidance, tools, and resources to help clinics complete their ACE screening implementation journey. The How-To Guide consists of four stages that are designed to:
Prepare the foundation for ACE screening implementation;
Select the organization’s approach to screening and trauma-informed care;
Implement the screening program; and
Ensure sustainability over time.
We recently released the first stage – Preparing the Foundation – and subsequent stages will be added over the coming months.The How-To Guide was developed based on interviews with clinicians, researchers, learnings from implementation studies, learning collaboratives, pilot evaluations, and other health care innovations that have been successfully implemented into clinical practice.Technical assistance on how to use the How-To Guide and ACE Screening implementation is being planned.Thank you for taking the time to look at these new resources and be part of the movement to improve health outcomes for all Californians.