Preventing childhood trauma linked to drugs, health issues
County program to receive funding
Allegheny County’s Health Department will receive funding as part of a nationwide effort to research and prevent childhood traumas that can lead to substance abuse and other health issues.
The county was one of seven recipients awarded the funding, which is being provided by the National Association of County and City Health Officials, an organization that represents nearly 3,000 local health departments in the U.S.
The sites will share more than $ 3 million, which NACCHO said will go toward the implementation of evidence-based approaches and communitybased efforts “to prevent and mitigate the harm of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the subsequent increased risk for Substance Use Disorder (SUD).”
NACCHO said its effort is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The seven sites receiving funding are:
• Parents Anonymous Inc. in Pomona, Calif.; $450,000.
• Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.; $450,000.
• The Youth Connection in Detroit; $450,000. • Utah State University in Cache County, Utah; $449,999. • St. Mary’s Community Health Department in Leonardtown, Md.; $449,995. • Allegheny County Health Department; $403,786. • Catholic Charities Diocese of Pueblo/ Pueblo’s Family Resource Center in Pueblo County, Colo.; $392,130. According to the CDC, adverse childhood experiences “are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood ( 0- 17 years). They include experiencing violence, abuse or neglect; witnessing violence in the home or community; or having a family member attempt or die by suicide.” Those factors, along with the general environment in which a child is raised, play an oversized role in whether that child later turns to drug abuse by undermining “their sense of safety, stability and bonding such as growing up in a household with substance misuse, mental health problems, and/or instability due to parental separation or household members being in jail or prison.” Along with substance abuse, NACCHO said adverse experiences among children can have adulthood impacts, such as chronic health problems and mental illness. The experiences can also have a negative impact on education and job opportunities. In its award to Allegheny County, NACCHO said the county “continues to experience the ongoing effects of the overdose epidemic with a 16% increase in fatal overdoses from 2018 to 2019. [The] county also experiences rising racial health disparities among Black or African American residents who are experiencing a higher and rising death rate at 18 to 24 per 100,000 compared to their white counterparts at half that rate.” The organization praised the county’s datadriven Hello Baby program, an ambitious plan that aims to reach out to the parents of each child — nearly 13,000 of them per year — to let them know about services and support available to the families. Hello Baby also uses an algorithm to predict which babies are at higher risk for problems such as potential child abuse or neglect. NACCHO said ACHD will use the funding to try to better address opioid use disorder/ substance use disorder treatment for women and families by expanding Hello Baby. It also will allow ACHD to broaden existing activity “to include dissemination of local resources targeting primary care providers along with the best available evidence to prevent ACEs from occurring and lessen associated harms.”