When: September 26th and 27th, 2013
Time: Day 1: 8:30am – 5:00pm / Day 2: 8:30am – 2:00pm
Where: Best Western Great Northern Hotel, Helena MT
Who should attend?
Corporate and Small Business Executives, HR Directors, Workforce Development Professionals, Educators, Mental Health Professionals, Healthcare Providers, Health Reform Administrators, Juvenile Justice Professionals and Officers of the Court, Chemical Dependency Professionals, Policy Makers, Parents, Foster Parents, Early Care and Education Professionals, Leaders of Philanthropy and the Non-profit sectors.
Continuing Education:
Up to 11 CEU credits, OPI renewals, Nursing contact hours and POST credits are available for social workers, therapists, psychologists, educators, law enforcement officials and healthcare providers. (pending approval)
Speaker Biographies
Dr. Robert Anda earned his M.D. from Chicago’s Rush Medical College in 1979, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. After earning an M.S. in Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in 1984, he served for 2 years as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the CDC, Dr. Anda has served as an Epidemiologist in the Nutrition Division, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Branch, the Cardiovascular Health Studies Branch, and on the Task Force on Genetics in Public Health. From 1992 to 1994, he was the Chief of Epidemiology and the Surveillance Section in Cardiovascular Health. Since 1993, Dr. Anda has been a Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study. He has authored and coauthored numerous publications on the health and social implications of adverse
childhood experiences.
Christopher Blodgett, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist Dr. Blodgett received his Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba and a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Kansas. In addition to his work at Neuro-education he’s a Senior Research Associate and tenured Associate Professor of Human Development at Washington State University. Dr. Blodgett specializes in helping children, adolescents and families overcome challenges with emotional and behavioral problems. In addition to working with children and families, Dr. Blodgett has extensive experience helping adults with depression, anxiety, chronic illness adjustment, eating disorders, and marital problems.
Laura Porter currently serves as the Director of ACE Partnerships for Washington State’s largest agency: the Department of Social and Health Services. She works with state managers and community leaders to embed ACE study findings and related neuroscience and resilience findings into policy, practice and community norms.
For seventeen years, Laura was Staff Director for the Washington State Family Policy Council. She worked with an extensive set of partners from seven state agencies, fifty three community collaboratives and thousands of residents to develop a unique model for improving the capacity of communities to improve child, family and community life. Using this model, communities align and leverage resources and generate more impactful strategies. Communities using the model have documented reductions in the rates of seven major social problems and adverse childhood experience prevalence among young adults. Cost savings from caseload reductions attributable to the Family Policy Council in child welfare, juvenile justice and public medical costs associated with births to teen mothers alone exceed $55m/biennium. For managing a complex system that delivers stunning results for a small investment, Laura won the Governor’s Award for Leadership in Management in 2011.
Suggested Agenda
Day 1 – Sept. 26
1st half of day
Speaker: Dr. Robert Anda
A general overview of ACEs (75-90) min
- Basics of stress and neurobiology
- What are ACEs
- Interrelatedness of ACEs
- How we used the ACE Score
- ACE Score and major public health problems: addiction, mental health, violence, chronic disease co morbidity
- Examples of how ACE has been applied elsewhere (esp. WA)
- Need for public health surveillance
- Barriers to change
- Need for integration of systems and services
Q/A 15 min
- New Thoughts About What the ACE Study Means (45 min-60 minutes)
- ACEs and human nature (as opposed to reductionist approaches)
- Unified systems theory (general concept)
- ACE study as an (effective) Trojan Horse
- ACEs as destabilizers of relationship, family, and community
- Concept of self-healing communities (engaging ACE affected individuals in healing
and community well-being)
Q/A 15 minutes
- Speaker: Chris Blodgett, PhD , Director Area Health Education Center of Eastern Washington/CLEAR Trauma Center – Keynote Address/Audience Exercise
Lunch – On your own (12:15 – 1:15)
2nd half of day
Speaker: Chris Blodgett, Ph.D.
Director Area Health Education Center of Eastern Washington/CLEAR Trauma Center
- The implications of brain development for understanding traumatic responses to ACEs
Attachment and the core role of relationships across the life span- implications for action- Introducing a conceptual framework (we use the ARC Framework) for understanding trauma behaviors and how to organize our responses for trauma recovery and resilience
- Lessons learned from working in P-12 education as a complex non-clinical system that can become trauma-informed.
- Goal 1: Introduce the concept of complex trauma from ACEs and its implications for brain development, relationships, and systems success.
- Goal 2: Introduce a practical conceptual framework for helping traumatized children.
- Goal 3: Provide practical guidance and lessons learned from current efforts in Washington State to create universal trauma-informed systems.
Day 2 – Sept. 27
8:30am – 2:00pm
Speaker: Laura Porter
Founder and staff director of the Washington State Family Policy Council
- What’s predictable is preventable – the magnitude of the solution that is in our hands.
- Using a dual generation approach; thinking with compassion.
- Compassion exercise (illustrates a way of thinking that can lead to effective innovation).
- Working with complex problems in complex adaptive systems.
- Systems Thinking Iceberg – a model for generating transformative change.
- Aligning professional practice and community actions: communities need evidence based practice, innovation, and community capacity to collaboratively solve tough problems; when these are aligned around common language and aspirations, lives improve.
- The promise of peers: everyday actions can build social-emotional support, networks for giving and receiving practical help, and community rituals that support cycles of reflection and action – and can thereby improve health, safety and productivity of the population as a whole.
Working Lunch – Video presentation
*Dr. Anda will participate on day 2 with breakouts, exercises, discussions, etc.
