Savannah, GA (WSAV) — On Saturday, Georgia Southern’s Armstrong campus welcomed guests from across the Savannah region for the Road to Resilience symposium. The symposium discussed mental health and trauma-based education, and also featured a panel discussion on Cherie LB Trice’s Her Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE).

The panel delved into what ACE is and what communities can do to intervene in its impact on developing children.

“This conference is all about building resilient communities,” said Trice. She believes resilience can be taught to help children cope with her ACE.

Trice, director of development at Greenbriar Children’s Center, echoed a sentiment shared by many of the attendees and presenters at her panel. “We are medicine.”

The idea is that pathways to alleviating the trauma and mental health afflictions that many face consist not only of medication, but also of community support and outreach.

64% of Americans have experienced at least one ACE. In Georgia, he reported that 3 out of 5 of hers surveyed experienced her ACE. One in five Americans has had three or more of her ACEs.

ACE can include physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, family separation, and food insecurity.

This is important because ACE is associated with negative health effects overall, and mental health effects in particular. People with ACE are six times more likely to develop depression and 1.47 times more likely to develop cancer. They are also more likely to develop COPD and heart disease.

Children with ACE are also more likely to be underperformed, suspended, or dropped out of school.

Trice pointed out that ACE itself has no solution, but while society cannot stop all trauma, there are ways these health and life consequences can be avoided.

The negative effects of ACE can be mitigated in several ways. Yet one of the most important things is to give your child the opportunity to form strong connections with others in their lives. Importantly, these connections must include adult role models who can give the child a sense of stability.

“Don’t underestimate the ability to change the trajectory of a child’s life,” Trice said.

These role models can be parents, community members, teachers, or other positive adults with whom children frequently interact.

“That kind of relationship is enough,” Trice explained.

For more information about the symposium, please click or tap this link.