Screening for ACEs: A Pediatrician’s Story

The first video in the ACEs Aware Storytelling Series features pediatrician Dr. Eric Ball, from Children’s Health Orange County (CHOC), and a compelling case study on the importance of applying his ACEs Aware training to help his patients, their families, and his clinical staff, cope with the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other life stressors.

“My job as a pediatrician is to make sure kids stay healthy and grow into healthy adults,” says Dr. Ball. With a holistic approach to treating disease, Dr. Ball uses techniques he learned from the ACEs Aware core training to build resiliency in himself, his family, and his patients and clinical staff.

Clinical teams have an important role to play in screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and preventing and treating toxic stress to improve patients’ physical and mental health.

“I’ve been referring to the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘universal adverse childhood experience’,” says Dr. Ball. “My ACEs training, even though I was seeing lots of kids who had ACE scores of zero, really helped because I was able to teach all of these kids ways to calm themselves down, reduce stress, and be able to get back to life.”

Find out how you can train to become ACEs Aware at www.acesaware.org/learn-about-screening/training/.