MAINE
Anna's story underscores impact of adverse childhood experiences
“Are we going to pay up front or a whole lot more later on?”
That question was asked Thursday morning by Ann Jennings, Ph.D., keynote speaker at the Kent Center awards breakfast at the Crowne Plaza. Jennings was referring to the cost to taxpayers if people with histories of sexual and physical abuse are not treated. But, as her audience learned, she was also talking about her own daughter, Anna Caroline Jennings.
As Jennings told the story, made all the more poignant with photographs of her daughter, Anna was sexually abused by a babysitter at the age of three. The family was unaware of what had happened and thought Anna had a diaper rash. Anna was unable to communicate what had happened.
Jennings, who initiated and directed for eight years the country’s first state system Office of Trauma Services for Maine’s Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, said childhood experiences are “the most powerful in determining” a person’s future. She said that studies have shown that 22 percent of children are sexually abused and that “this is a problem of epidemic proportions.”
Sexual abuse is one of several adverse childhood experiences identified in a study involving 17,000 people that can be correlated to a series of effects from difficulty controlling rage to depression, panic attacks, sleep problems, impaired memory, anxiety and dissociation. Health risk behaviors also linked to the traumas of early childhood include smoking, severe obesity, alcoholism, suicide attempts, eating disorders, sex with 50 or more partners, perpetuate interpersonal violence, drug abuse, physical inactivity and repetition of the original trauma.
Jennings outlined the results of the study, Adverse Childhood Experiences Study performed by the Center for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente, using photos of Anna as she talked. The pictures went from a cute, bubbly young girl to an obviously troubled woman and then a final picture of an adult – there was a slight resemblance to Anna – who appeared demented and years older than her actual age. Jennings said the more adverse childhood experiences, the greater the probability of effects and risk behaviors that translate directly to long-term consequences including disease and social problems.
Anna, as Jennings explained after the breakfast, was subjected not only to sexual abuse, but was a child when Jennings and her former husband went through a contentious divorce. Another trauma Anna suffered as a child – one identified in the study – was Jennings’ own alcoholism. Anna was institutionalized. There were multiple attempts to help her. At the age of 32 she took her own life.
Her eyes welling, Jennings, who has told Anna’s story many times in her 22-year campaign to raise public awareness over the importance to identify and address adverse childhood experiences, said Anna was artistic and that she found satisfaction and rewards in art. However, her work was viewed as a product of therapy rather than an inspired achievement. “Deprivation of hope is most damaging,” said Jennings, “when she despaired all she wanted to do was die.”
Jennings said that the study found people who had undergone multiple adverse childhood experiences live shorter lives. Diseases and disabilities linked to the health risk behaviors and trauma effects included cancer, heart disease, asthma, liver disease, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, skeletal fractures, lung disease and emphysema. Social problems identified included homelessness, prostitution, criminal behavior, violence, rape, compromised ability to parent, inability to sustain employment, intergenerational transmission of abuse and long-term use of health, behavioral health, correctional and social services. “Had I known as a parent, I would have done a lot more,” Jennings told her audience. She urged that the issue of adverse childhood experiences “gets put on the table. We have got to start asking what happened to this adult rather than what’s wrong with this adult.”
David Lauterbach, president/CEO of Kent Center, agreed. He related that frequently mental health patients aren’t asked, “Has anything really bad ever happened to you?” Often, he said, they have suffered a traumatic experience and learning that can be an assurance. “They say I’m having a normal response to an abnormal situation,” he said.
In accepting the Kent Center’s outstanding leadership award, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts said that in these difficult economic times the center “is a critical safety net.” She also urged the center “to speak up” so that policy makers know of its role and work.
The center also recognized the work of the Rhode Island National Guard; Barbara Morse Silva, health check reporter for NBC 10 WJAR and Michael Ryan, president of R.I. Distribution National Grid. The National Guard was the recipient of the Community Partner Award for the Adventure Camp it runs for 400 youth. Major General Robert T. Bray said the camp provides a role model for young people and helps them gain a reference for their future. Morse Silva received the Media Champion Award for the ongoing health series she narrates on Channel 10. Ryan was the recipient of the Eleanor Briggs Award, named in memory of the woman who worked hard to bring attention and care to those suffering from mental illness.
Ryan applauded the work of Kent Center. “When people are in need, you are there to help,” he said, “You have a generational impact on the Rhode Island community.”
More about the adverse childhood experiences study and the work of Ann Jennings and the Anna Institute can be found at www.theannainstitute.org
John Howell
21 October 2008
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