A negative experience as a child can have a big impact on a person’s health, and the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition wants to begin figuring how those experiences are affecting the people of Juneau — and spreading the word about the link in the first place.
“The ACEs study seems to be well-known within specific communities (like behavioral health) but broadly, in the community, it’s not well known,” said Hilary Young, Suicide Prevention Program Coordinator for Juneau Youth Services and JSPC.
That’s in spite of the fact that many people in Alaska, and in Juneau, have had the experiences — sexual, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, a jailed family member — that can lead to difficulties later in life.
ACEs stands for “Adverse Childhood Experiences.” In the 1980s, researcher Dr. Vincent Felitti noticed a link between sexual abuse and obesity. He and Dr. Robert Anda were the first to begin researching the link between traumatic childhood experiences and mental and physical health later in life. The two narrowed down the inquiry to ten basic yes or no questions about trauma a person might experience before the age of 18. The survey takes less than two minutes to complete.
Many people may not have even spoken about negative experiences they had early on in life — but healing can start even just with the survey, said coalition member and retired state health planner and epidemiologist Alice Rarig.
“We find that just bringing it up, just showing that you care whether (a person has had) these experiences begins the recovery process,” Rarig said. “It helps people to acknowledge what they’ve been through. Sometimes they’ve never acknowledged it at all.”
The questions, Rarig said, “help people understand themselves and people around them, and to be more aware of what people may be going through.”
The coalition already uses data from other surveys, like the annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey and Alaska’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Rarig said. Those surveys make it clear how bullying and other forms of trauma can “really elevate the risk of a young person having mental health problems, substance abuse problems, suicidal thoughts.”
In February, Sealaska Heritage Institute brought Felitti to town. A conversation with him was the impetus for the coalition offering the survey in Juneau.
The survey won’t be a statistical sample, Rarig said, but more a starting place. And it’ll be discussed at JSPC’s free upcoming conference, “Adverse Childhood Experiences: Learn, Change, Prevent,” scheduled for June 2-3.
The conference is co-sponsored by the University of Alaska Southeast, where it’ll be hosted, and the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Behavioral Health, which is a big funder for the coalition. The conference also offers free CEUs (continuing education units) and CMEs (continuing medical education.)
It focuses on, among other things, historical and intergenerational trauma, specifically within the Alaska Native community; schools, primary care, and how trauma can impact communities as a whole.
One of the coauthors of the ACEs study, Dr. Rob Anda, will also present at the conference.
Registration began May 10. Around 175 people attended last year’s conference, Young said; this year’s is capped at 200.
Anyone can take the survey at https://www.research.net/r/JuneauACES. It’s anonymous, though they do ask for a person’s sex and age range (they’d like to get a range of people representative of the community.) It’ll be available until the end of May, Young said.
“If people can talk about and know about these things (sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and experiences the survey asks about)… they might be more inclined to ask someone if they are thinking about suicide, and reach out, and get help,” Young said. “It can help prevent more hurt. It’s kind of everyone’s responsibility to keep people safe and kind of check in on how they’re doing.”
The JSPC’s websites have more information about the conference and are a helpful resource for those having suicidal thoughts or going through other difficulties. They are juneausuicideprevention.org and juneaumentalhealth.org.
• Contact Capital City Weekly managing editor Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.
