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April is memorialized as Child Abuse Awareness Month annually. In Tulsa, we have a lot of experience with child abuse, but most of us hear of it only after the tragic death of a child by a caregiver, sometimes related, sometimes not. Some 2,700 kids report some kind of abuse or neglect annually in Tulsa County.

There is growing awareness of the high incidents of Adverse Childhood Experiences scores among our population and how high scores contribute to continued violence and abuse as adults. ACE is a survey of 10 questions generally given to an older child or more often an adult where each negative experience counts as 1 point.

Oklahoma is one of three states with the highest ACE scores for children age 0-5 (National Survey of Children’s Health, 2016). For our adult population, unmitigated high ACE scores continue the cycle of violence as victims or abusers and is one of the leading indicators of community “unhealthiness.” For example, those with an ACE score of four or more experience 400% to 1,200% higher risk for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression and suicide when compared with a score of zero.