Adverse Childhood Experiences & Resiliency

MaineHealth is committed to sharing ACEs knowledge and best practices across our health care system and beyond. Our goal is to help providers recognize and respond to all types of ACEs and trauma.

Realize. Recognize. Respond.

• View ACEs data and learn about community impacts.
• Read about how to implement ACEs treatment strategies in your practice. 

For more information, please contact the MaineHealth ACEs team at childhealth@mainehealth.org.

MaineHealth has created a free ACEs screening tool for providers that includes recommended screening questions and sample language to use when communicating with families and children.

Health care providers may also want to review our ACEs Provider Education Video Series co-hosted by Steve DiGiovanni, MD and Rebecca Brown, LCSW:

• Addressing ACEs and Trauma in Pediatric Settings (Part 1)
• Implementation and Support (Part 2)
• Practice Strategies for Addressing ACEs - Webinar (Part 3)

Additional videos:

• Adverse Childhood Experiences, Implications for the Health Care System: Maine Medical Center Grand Rounds
• How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime: TedMed, Nadine Burke Harris, MD
• Identification and management of childhood exposure to violence and trauma: Portland Defending Childhood

For more information, please contact the MaineHealth ACEs team at childhealth@mainehealth.org.

Several evidence-based trauma treatments have been shown to be successful in reducing the negative effects of childhood trauma and increasing resiliency in children. MaineHealth Behavioral Health offers expert trauma-related services for children (individually or with their parents or guardians) from on-the-scene crisis assistance to brief and long-term therapy programs such as:

• Child-Parent Psychotherapy
• Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
• Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention

Learn more about MaineHealth Behavioral Health.

Concerned about a patient who screened positive for ACEs?

MaineHealth behavioral health clinicians can help with:

• Assessment
• Further screening
• Treatment
• Community resources
• Individual and group therapy
• Family counseling
• Parent support

For more information, please contact the MaineHealth ACEs team at childhealth@mainehealth.org.

• 211Maine.org
• Child Developmental Services
• Community Partnership for Protecting Children
• MaineHealth Behavioral Health
• MaineHealth Maine Medical Center Department of Psychiatry
• MaineHealth Home Health & Hospice
• Portland Public Health
• Maine Kids Count Data Book
• Maine Resilience Building Network
• The Opportunity Alliance
• The United Way of Greater Portland

• Aces Too High
• The Amazing Brain: Trauma and the Potential for Healing
• American Academy of Pediatrics, The Resilience Project
• CDC/Kaiser ACE study, Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults
• Center for Child Stress & Health
• Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• The Center for Youth Wellness
• Childhood Adversity Narratives
• Futures Without Violence
• healthychildren.org
• National Center for Grieving Children and Families
• The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Toolkit for Healthcare Providers
• Note to Parents and Caregivers
• Sesame Street in Communities
• Treating Childhood Trauma: Oprah Winfrey reports on CBS on how trauma plays a role in childhood development and what new methods are being used to help kids who have experienced it.

The educational materials on this page may be displayed, copied, distributed or downloaded for personal or noncommercial uses, provided that such material is not altered or modified and that a reference to MaineHealth is provided.

The information shared on this page is intended to assist clinicians in standardizing the evaluation, diagnosis, and care of patients, with the goal of achieving optimal outcomes. The guidelines translate national recommendations and the best available evidence into local context.

Adherence to these guidelines should limit unwanted or unintended variation in practice, but guidelines are not meant to be prescriptive. The clinician retains the responsibility to select the appropriate guideline for a particular patient and to use the guideline to the extent that it serves the individual patient.

Any given approach must be carefully considered with each individual patient to ensure that an effective shared-decision-making process is in place, which reflects the patient's personal wishes, medical history, and family history.