Guest speaker Robert Clark gave a presentation on the Good Shepherd Centre where he is the head of strategic development. the Good Shepherd is a secure closed support unit for children between the ages of 2 and 8. Young people must be referred through the childrens hearing system or the criminal justice system. The children referred have experienced hardship in their lives and some will have had traumatic situations that can lead to mental health problems, Not coping with their feelings and day-to-day life (Who we are Good Shepherd Centre, n.d.). Clark spoke about adverse childhood experiences and the presenting behaviors and concerns of young people. Clark spoke about what was different for each gender. self-harming and attachment were the top two for girls, Where as the boys main issues were attachment and trauma. One of the Good Shepherds models of intervention is the trauma-informed approach. This is a way of supporting young people to acknowledge the needs they may have because of the trauma they have experienced, by recognizing and responding to the trauma (Leitch, 207).
The term adverse childhood experience was originally developed in America between
995 to 997 and was conducted by Kaiser Permanente. It first began in the 980s when Dr. Vincent Fettiti noticed people dropping out of his obesity clinic even though they were having significant weight loss. he lies there was a link between obesity in childhood sexual abuse. Fettiti Went on to collaborate with Dr Robert Anda who was a researcher in disease and prevention, to study the association between sheltered experiences and health throughout their lifetime 7,000 people were involved in the study and were given a questionnaire to fill out. the results showed the number of ACEs experienced the higher the risk of mental, social, and physical health issues and adult life. for example, adults who had experienced ACEs were 2.9 times more likely to have heart disease, 4.6 times more likely to suffer from depression at 9.7 times more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. (Bethell et al., 207) ACEs are replicated around the world. studies were carried out by Mark A Bellis in 204. Professor Mark Bellis is the Executive Director of Policy and International Health Director of the WHO. Bellis study found that 46% of adults had suffered at least one ACE, and 4% had four or above.