“Burke Harris has dedicated her career to changing the way society responds to childhood trauma, which research has shown affects brain development and creates lifelong health problems.
"This involves public education, routine screening to enable early detection and early intervention, and cross-sector coordinated care," she said at a hearing on providing care in schools held by the House Committee on Education and Labor in September. "The opportunity ahead of us is about a true intersection of health care and education."
A study on youth trauma, known as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACES, was a landmark when it was published in 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente. The study specified 10 categories of stressful or traumatic childhood events, including abuse, parental incarceration, and divorce or parental separation; its research showed that sustained stress caused biochemical changes in the brain and body and drastically increased the risk of developing mental illness and health problems.
Burke Harris first noticed this connection while treating children at a clinic in San Francisco.
"One thing that tipped me off was the number of kids being sent to me by schools -- principals, teachers and administrators -- with ADHD,” she said, referring to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). “What I found was that many of the kids were experiencing signs of adversity, and there seemed to be a strong association between adversity and the trauma they experienced and school functioning." Patricia Gaines
Read more here about the important need to identify childhood trauma for what it is.
