During opening remarks for the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition\u2019s conference, \u201cAdverse Childhood Experiences and Suicide,\u201d Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott talked about the challenging and traumatic experiences he and his family experienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother \u2014 a full-blooded Tlingit lady \u2014 her entire experience of life was that of adversity. Her mother was born, and living at the time that missionaries came to our community and changed our world forever,\u201d he said to an audience of more than 200 people at the Egan Library Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Mallott said his mother saw drastic changes that left lasting impacts to their home village of Yakutat \u2014 the first cannery, the first school, the first health care.<\/p>\n
Mallott remembers hearing his mother \u201ctalking Tlingit and laughing, eating seagull eggs, dipping them in seal oil,\u201d but he was also told, \u201cto learn English because that was the language of our future, that not only must we learn English, somehow speaking Tlingit was not good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said all the changes destroyed his mother and she was an alcoholic. Starting in first grade, Mallott attended Catholic boarding school, which he called \u201can incredible learning experience,\u201d but it was also where he witnessed abuse of another child.<\/p>\n
Mallott said the issue of suicide prevention is very intense and personal to his life. He said he had a family member commit suicide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live with rage inside me every single day,\u201d Mallott said. \u201cEvery single day I work to channel it into something positive, to reach out and build another relationship, to learn something of another, to make a connection that maybe is worth something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Rob Anda called aspects of Mallott\u2019s personal story examples of historical trauma, which can have devastating effects on future generations. Anda, the first key note speaker of the conference, spoke on, \u201cThe Progressive Nature of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Building Self-Healing Communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anda is a co-founder of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente in the mid-1990s. Results of the study showed the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and health and social problems from adolescence to late adulthood.<\/p>\n
Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, include physical, emotional and sexual abuse; neglect; domestic violence; living with an alcoholic or addict; and homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are more people that have been affected by adverse childhood experiences than those who have not,\u201d Anda said. \u201cWe found that ACEs rarely occur in isolation. They come in groups. They come in clusters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study found exposure to adverse childhood experiences can increase the risk of both social and health problems, like adolescent and unintended pregnancy, alcoholism, depression, drug use, heart disease, liver disease, domestic violence, smoking, sexually transmitted diseases, homelessness and suicide attempts. The more ACEs you experience, the higher the risk.<\/p>\n
Pointing to a slide showing a graph, Anda said, \u201cThis is the risk of attempted suicide as the ACE scores goes from zero to seven or more. It\u2019s about 1 percent for an ACE score of zero and it increases rapidly. The far right, 35 to 40 percent of people with an ACE score of seven or more, have attempted suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said people with an ACE score of seven or more are 31 times more likely to attempt suicide.<\/p>\n
Anda used to think that \u201csuicide just sort of happens, and sometimes it does. What the ACE study shows me is that it\u2019s one of the most predictable health and social problems of all the ones we studied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Society tends to try to treat the outcomes of ACEs, like disease, disability and social problems, which can be expensive and frequently ineffective, Anda said. He wants to start treating the problem from the onset and stop ACEs before they occur.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who have adverse childhood experiences have a tendency to grow up and present similar experiences to the next generation,\u201d Anda said.<\/p>\n
But he also said ACEs are not destiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what your ACE score is or what my ACE score is, there are no one-to-one relationships between adversity and any health or social outcomes. So having any particular ACE score does not mean anyone is destined to any one of these social problems, \u201c Anda said. \u201cWe talk about risk, but not destiny \u2014 very important point.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said becoming trauma-informed is a way to change the cycle of trauma and decrease intergenerational ACEs. Being trauma-informed helps us to change the judgment that we put on people who may be practicing risky behaviors like smoking, drinking or using drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom, \u2018What\u2019s wrong with that person?\u2019 to saying, \u2018What happened to them?\u2019 If I know the story, I can understand, in many cases, why that behavior is there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ACE score provides a chance to see the story of your life and to create a different path for the future,\u201d Anda continued. \u201cIt transforms that story from one that is shameful and confusing … to create a different path for the future with hope, meaning and purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said people who\u2019ve experienced traumatic and adverse things as children are well equipped to help others.<\/p>\n
Sharon Wright-Brown agreed. She\u2019s a case manager for Juneau Youth Services\u2019 family outpatient services and a conference participant.<\/p>\n
She started working with JYS last September but has been in social services for 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had taken the ACE test myself and came up with a score of nine. To me, that was quite an eye-opener,\u201d Wright-Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been in this business for a long time, and I know that my dedication was to the betterment and wellness of families and their children. I had a feeling I wanted to contribute because of what I\u2019d gone through, but to see that test score myself, I\u2019ve realized just how much I\u2019ve gone through and how I can empathize with others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Empathy, she said, goes a long way in her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work with troubled youth,\u201d Wright-Brown said, \u201cand at times, I\u2019ve spoken with children and said, \u2018Hey, I know what you\u2019re going through. I\u2019ve been there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During opening remarks for the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition\u2019s conference, \u201cAdverse Childhood Experiences and Suicide,\u201d Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott talked about the challenging and traumatic experiences he and his family experienced. \u201cMy mother \u2014 a full-blooded Tlingit lady \u2014 her entire experience of life was that of adversity. Her mother was born, and living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":14825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14824"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}