Special Edition of The HUB: May is Mental Health Awareness Month | |
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we are taking a deep dive into an important concept you hear a lot about, but isn’t always explained: Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs.
This special edition of The HUB features insights from Lorry Leigh Belhumeur, Ph.D., CEO, Western Youth Services (WYS)
on ACEs, what they are, how they affect youth mental health and wellbeing – and most importantly, what we can do to foster resiliency in youth to help overcome ACEs.
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ACEs: What Are They and Why Do They Matter? | |
ACEs are defined as a harmful or distressing event occuring during childhood, which disrupts a child’s development. According to the CDC, they include directly experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessesing violence; or having a family member attempt or die by suicide. In the home, ACEs can include a variety of elements of family dysfunction, such as substance abuse and mental health issues, or separation from a parent or caregiver either due to divorce or other dislocation, including a parent or caregiver being incarcerated. | |
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ACEs create a toxic stress response in the brain. They impact both mental and physical health – and can leave individuals at greater risk for mental illness, chronic diseases, injury, and even suicide.
Before the pandemic, some 45% of US children had experienced one or more ACEs – those numbers have almost certainly grown. And even when they have not faced a specific ACE, nearly every child has faced some kind of adversity in the last few years. We see these issues playing out in people’s homes and in the disruption inside schools and in our communities. Kids are crying out for help.
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How Can Youth and Young Adults Overcome ACEs? | |
One word: Resiliency. Building resiliency teaches kids a set of lifetime skills that they can use to develop mental and emotional strength. | |
“Resilience can be taught. It is like a muscle that you can build,” explains Dr. Belhumeur. “So when you experience adversity later in life, you have ‘muscle memory’ and you think, ‘I can do this.’”
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How is “resiliency” defined? Resiliency refers to a person's ability to adapt and heal from life’s challenges. It is an essential life skill needed to navigate adversities that can impact lifelong health and wellbeing. Resiliency creates a buffer of protective factors and practical tools to deal with ACEs. | |
Special Program to Support All Students: Super Resilient Youth | |
Now that we know building resiliency in youth is vital to helping them overcome ACEs…where do we start? | |
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Super Resilient Youth (SRY) is an initiative with a mission to empower, heal, and inspire. Grounded in research, SRY offers a four-module curriculum for youth and a detailed companion guide for parents, teachers, leaders, and mentors. SRY equips children and adolescents with tools to develop self-awareness and leadership skills to navigate life's challenges and transcend the cycles of trauma. SRY aspires to mitigate these effects and foster a generation of survivors turned leaders who help break the generational cycle of trauma.
SRY begins by teaching students how to develop a deeper understanding of themselves, to know who they are.
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“If a child knows what their superpowers are and they know their value, when they hear harsh talk, they are more likely to deflect those negative assertions,” explains Dr. Belhumeur.
“For example, identifying times in the past when you have been courageous and then examining what that feels like and learning how you can be courageous again in the future.”
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Beyond externals, SRY also addresses students’ inner critic and gives them tools to stop self-directed negativity in its tracks. It teaches them how to engage in mental rehearsals to overcome present obstacles and improve future performance. | |
“We are teaching them to find and build on a strong vision of themselves that they have developed,” explains Dr. Belhumeur. “Our final lesson is: ‘Activate Your Value’ – we’ve learned from decades of working with students facing tremendous adversity that teaching strength and resilience not only gives them a reason to go forward, but a path to thrive. It completely shifts how they view themselves and their world.”
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Are You Ready to Equip Youth with the Tools they Need to Thrive? | |
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Sign up here to receive a free sneak peek into the Super Resilient Youth curriculum.
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Contact Kari Whitcraft at Kari.Whitcraft@westernyouthservices.org to learn how you can bring SRY to your school, home, and/or organization.
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The HUB is here to help spread the word! If you have something to share that advances youth mental health, drop us a line. Please email all submissions to Gabriela Rodriguez at gabriela@reillygroupinc.com.
Share The HUB! Please forward it on to educators, staff, administrators, parents, families and students in the school community, and community organizations serving youth and families.
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The HUB is brought to you by Western Youth Services and The Reilly Group editors: Gabriela Rodriguez, Colleen Reilly, and Lyric Winik. | |
Western Youth Services has been a leading provider of mental health and wellness solutions for over 50 years. WYS expertise focuses on overcoming ACEs, crisis intervention, school-based services, and trauma-informed care. WYS works with a variety of organizations and individuals, including schools, clinical and non-clinical providers, families, and community members. One of WYS' signature programs is Super Resilient® Youth - a mental wellness curriculum grounded in research, designed to help youth thrive in times of adversity and stress. WYS also offers no-cost trainings through the Behavioral Health Training Collaborative and Crisis Intervention Training programs. WYS' integrated system ensures youth have access to preventative, early intervention, and intensive therapies. | | | | |
