What do cancer, diabetes and heart disease have to do with child abuse?
The CDC says children with a high number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at significant risk for health problems as adults. These experiences include:
- Experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect.
- Witnessing violence in the home or community.
- Having a family member attempt or die by suicide.
Additionally, environmental conditions play a role, such as:
- A family member with substance use problems.
- A family member with mental health problems.
- Parental separation or divorce.
- Incarceration of family members.
Nearly 20 percent of adults surveyed said they’ve experienced at least 4 out of 10 types of ACEs. Having an ACE score of 4 nearly doubles the risk of heart disease and cancer and significantly increases the risk for substance abuse, depression and other problems as well.
You can find out your own ACE score (it takes about 3 minutes):
https://stopabusecampaign.org/take-your-ace-test/
Purely from a cost-benefit standpoint, our state should be interested in keeping ACE scores as low as possible. Yet we know millions of dollars were left sitting on the table in the form of TANF funds in 2021. Zero dollars of those TANF funds were spent on child welfare, unlike other states.
In Minnesota, there are thousands of children with high ACE scores. We’ll continue to advocate for investments on their behalf.
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