1. Pediatric ACEs Screening and Referral: Facilitators, Barriers, and Opportunities for Improvement.
- Author
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Dumke KA, Hamity C, Peters K, DiGangi M, Negriff S, Sterling SA, and Young-Wolff KC
- Abstract
Despite well-documented associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and lifelong impairments in health and well-being, few studies have examined how to facilitate implementation of ACEs screening and referral programs in pediatric settings. We sought to identify facilitators and barriers related to screening for and addressing ACEs in a large integrated healthcare delivery system in Southern California. Using a developmental evaluation approach, we conducted twenty semi-structured interviews with pediatricians, nurses, social workers, and community referral organization staff. Interviews took place across six pediatric clinic pilot sites in Kaiser Permanente Southern California, where more than 7,000 pediatric patients were screened for ACEs between July 2018 and December 2019. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes. Key facilitators for screening and referrals for pediatric ACEs screening included providing clinician education to normalize conversations about ACEs, using screening data to provide more holistic and compassionate care, and collaborating across different types of clinicians. Key barriers included screening tool challenges related to patient confusion and cultural differences, capacity limitations, training issues, and care team silos. When used in the context of a trauma- and resilience-informed workforce, ACEs screening may be a powerful tool to support more collaborative and impactful care decisions that move away from symptom management to address root causes and promote prevention., Competing Interests: Competing InterestsThe authors have no direct or indirect financial or nonfinancial competing interests to declare., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)
- Published
- 2024
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