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Presentation: South Dakota Resilient Communities
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Summary:
Led by Social NET Works, a coalition of local stakeholders with representatives from healthcare, behavioral health, government, nonprofits and education met monthly to analyze the City of Brookings and Brookings County's current strengths that help children and families deal with and recover from traumatic experiences, thereby aiming to mitigate long-lasting effects, referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The coalition identified gaps that could be filled through a multidisciplinary approach to resource delivery. Over the last 18 months, a coalition has been built in Brookings to protect child safety, prevent trauma, and help provide resources for healing if trauma has occurred.
South Dakota children are facing child abuse and maltreatment at an alarming rate. Research shows that ACEs have a direct impact on an individual's nervous system and brain development, which creates long-term mental and physical health issues as well as an increase in at-risk behavior. The good news is maltreatment is preventable. Understanding the impact of ACEs and factors that prevent and mitigate those effects can lessen the long-term harm the abuse causes. ACEs include 10 different forms of childhood maltreatment (household dysfunction, abuse and neglect) that have been researched since 1992.
Individuals with an ACEs score of 4 or more:
* 12.2% more likely to attempt suicide
* 7.4 times more likely to consider themselves an alcoholic
* 5.5 times more likely to report missing 14 or more days of work in a month due to mental illness.
* 4.7 times as likely to have used illicit drugs
* More than 80% of youth in the juvenile justice system export experiencing trauma
* 9% of South Dakotans - 79,900 people -- report experiencing trauma
The Resilient Communities: South Dakota framework was created by the Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment and its partner organizations to help addres...
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