Adverse Childhood Events & Trauma-Informed Care
Chapa-De Indian Health Auburn Grass Valley | Medical Clinic
The experience of traumatic events can have lifelong impacts on physical and mental health. Both adults and children can experience things that can result in trauma. People can be affected by trauma differently. Studies have shown that exposure to adverse childhood events can impact a person’s health risks for years. Getting help with the trauma that could happen from adverse events can help improve behavioral health and overall health.
What are Adverse Childhood Events?
Adverse childhood events are negative or stressful events that may result in trauma. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network estimates that 1 in 4 children will go through a traumatic event before age 16. These can be either single events or repeated events.
Some examples can include, but are not limited to:
- Natural disasters
- Experiencing physical abuse
- Experiencing neglect
- Witnessing violence
What is Trauma?
There is no single definition of “trauma.” The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) use this description of trauma:
Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening, and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.
This explanation focuses on three main parts:
- The event: what happened.
- The experience: how a person felt.
- The effects: the impact of the situation.
It is important to know that there are many different types of trauma. Many different experiences can result in trauma. People experience events differently. What is traumatic for one person may not be traumatic for another. You can read more about SAMHSA’s concept of trauma HERE.
What is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care can help patients who have experienced trauma. Trauma-Informed care ensures that providers:
- Understand different types of trauma
- Recognize trauma in their patients
- Respond to trauma properly
- Reduce the risk of further trauma
Trauma-informed care is a type of whole-patient healthcare. Whole-patient healthcare considers all of the different aspects that make up a person’s health, including any traumatic experiences. This approach recognizes that people who have experienced trauma may have unique or more health risks than people who have not experienced trauma. Chapa-De uses a trauma-informed care approach to promote each patient’s overall health and wellness.
Resiliency
Resiliency is the ability to adapt to or “bounce back” from difficult life events. An important part of resiliency is having protective factors. Protective factors are people, skills, or resources that can help reduce negative effects of a traumatic situation.
Here are some examples of protective factors for adults and children:
- Safe, stable and nurturing relationships
- Parent resilience
- Social connections and concrete support
- Developing self-confidence
- Social and emotional health
Behavioral Health Services at Chapa-De
Chapa-De offers a variety of behavioral health services in both Auburn and Grass Valley. These services include addressing mental and emotional trauma. Our team of providers helps patients meet their long-term and short-term goals for mental and emotional health. Learn more about those services HERE.
For some tips and suggestions on coping with negative experiences, click HERE.
For more information, call our Auburn location at (530) 887-2800 or our Grass Valley location at (530) 477-8545 or visit us online at chapa-de.org.
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Chapa-De provides medical care, dental care, optometry, behavioral health, pharmacy services and much more.
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Chapa-De Indian Healthcare Auburn Grass Valley