The original ACE Study involved more than 17,000 individuals and more than 200 questions. This is not a health screening tool. It is simply a survey about risk factors for the population as a whole. For any physical, mental, emotional or social health issues, you should seek professional help. Questions regarding your mother or step-mother being physically accosted were in the original ACE Study questionnaire. However, the LONGSCAN Study (Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse & Neglect) has subsequently provided deep research and data demonstrating that this type of abuse (intimate partner violence) is common against fathers or step-fathers, as well. The LONGSCAN also tells us that Intimate Partner Violence has the most significant, negative, deepest impact on a child’s development into adulthood. Also, a child does not have to actually witness the violent act itself (be it physical or verbal) for this damage to occur. Simply hearing acts of violence is enough to cause the damage in a child’s development and emotions.
Resources about Adverse Childhood Experiences
Resources for Preventing/Addressing/Reporting ACEs
Resources for Kids
Resources for Teens
Every hour of every day, someone in the United States needs essential services, from finding substance abuse assistance to securing adequate care for a child or an aging parent. Faced with a dramatic increase in the number of agencies and help-lines, people often don’t know where to turn. In many cases, people end up going without these necessary and readily available services because they do not know where to start.
While services that are offered through 2-1-1 vary from community to community, 2-1-1 provides callers with information about and referrals to human services for everyday needs and in times of crisis. For example, 2-1-1 can offer access to the following types of services:
- Basic Human Needs Resources: food banks, clothing closets, shelters, rent and utility assistance.
- Physical and Mental Health Resources: health insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, maternal health care, CHIP, medical information lines, crisis intervention services, support groups, counseling, drug and alcohol abuse intervention and rehabilitation.
- Employment Supports: financial assistance, job training, transportation assistance, educational programs.
- Support for Older Americans and Persons with Disabilities: adult day care, congregate meals, Meals on Wheels, respite care, home health care, transportation, homemaker services.
- Support for Children, Youth and Families: childcare, after school programs, Head Start, family resource centers, summer camps and recreation programs, mentoring, tutoring, protective services.
- Volunteer Opportunities and Donations.
How To Find Trauma-Informed Treatment
To find trauma informed care, you can:
Call up local programs or counselors and ask each specifically about their trauma informed or trauma-specific practices – and if a provider claims trauma-sensitive capabilities, ask again for specifics on how these practices differ from standard care.
Use the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) treatment locator tool, which lets you search by zip code for mental health or addiction treatment providers in your area. To use the locator:
- Search by zip code to find a list of behavioral health treatment providers within a radius around your home.
- Click on the change service selections button at the top of the list to get to an advanced selection menu.
- On this menu, click on the ‘individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder’ button (people with childhood trauma may not have PTSD, but this selection is the most likely to get you to trauma-informed providers able to help you with early life trauma, abuse or neglect).
- If you also need addiction treatment, also click on the button for ‘individuals with co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders’.
caring solutions | stronger families | healthier communities
Intermountain is a visionary non-profit agency that has been impacting the lives of children and families in Montana for over 100 years. With holistic, integrated services and a relationship-based approach, we help families create and sustain nurturing, healthy environments where children can thrive and grow. Our flagship residential campus at 500 South Lamborn in Helena, Montana, includes our integrated private school as well as our Child and Family Assessment Center. Providence Home, a therapeutic group home in the Flathead Valley, provides another care center. Community clinics in Helena, Great Falls Butte and Kalispell include some or all of the following: outpatient therapy, psychiatric medication management, psychological testing and evaluation, school-based services and family based services, including adoption, foster care and in-home therapeutic care.“We are excited to be providing services to children and families where they need them- in their homes, their communities and their schools. Intermountain’s integrated outpatient services allow children and families to go to one provider who can do it all – psychiatric medications, substance abuse treatment, co-occurring treatment, outpatient therapy, neurofeedback and psychological testing. And our beautiful new community services center allows us to provide training’s and community events as well”
-Elizabeth Kohlstaedt, Ph.D