About

Helping Californians live healthier lives and reach their full potential

Get Updates from ACEs Aware >

male doctor talking to smiling female child patient

The ACEs Aware initiative is a first-in-the nation effort to screen patients for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to help improve and save lives.

Initially led by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG) as part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s California For All initiative, ACEs Aware strives to create a better world for children, families, and communities by working together across the health, human services, education, and non-profit sectors to prevent and address the impact of ACEs and toxic stress.

On October 1, 2021, the ACEs Aware initiative transitioned to a new organizational home within the University of California. The newly created University of California ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN) is a multi-campus initiative that leverages the substantial interdisciplinary resources of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) public health sciences campuses to develop, promote, and sustain evidence-based methods to screen patients for ACEs and create treatment plans to help patients heal from the impacts of trauma and toxic stress. UCAAN is led and administered through the Department of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCSF Center to Advance Trauma-Informed Health Care.

More than 60 percent of Californians have experienced at least one ACE, and 16.7 percent have experienced four or more. [ 1 ] The good news is toxic stress is treatable. A consensus of scientific data demonstrates that early detection and early intervention significantly improves health outcomes. 

ACEs Aware is bringing communities together in ways never before imagined to prevent, screen for, treat, and heal trauma-induced toxic stress. Together, we are getting to the root cause of some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive health challenges facing our state and nation. 

“Decreasing the burden of ACEs is not only an ethical and moral imperative, but critical to our economic vitality. This work is a key preventive measure to improve health and societal outcomes for our state’s residents for generations to come.”

- California Governor Gavin Newsom

Initially funded through the 2021-22 budget under Proposition 56, ACEs Aware has become a vital part of the Medi-Cal program’s response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, helping providers identify, treat, and prevent the secondary health effects caused by the stress of the pandemic. The initiative is making great progress, but there is more work to be done.

“We have set a bold goal to cut ACEs and toxic stress in half in one generation. I believe that we can get there with shared vision, shared understanding, and cross-sector collaboration.”

- Former California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

Get Involved

Every person and organization can play a vital role in transforming health outcomes and improving the lives of Californians. Here’s how to engage with the ACEs Aware initiative, whether you are new to ACEs and trauma-informed work or long-standing leaders in this area:

ACEs Aware Newsroom

For the latest information and news from ACEs Aware, sign up for updates. Support the movement to become ACEs Aware in California by following us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to help us amplify this important work.

June 15 Trauma-Informed Primary Care (TIPC) Advisory Committee Meeting

A Trauma-Informed Primary Care (TIPC) Implementation Advisory Committee meeting will take place on June 15, 2023 from 10 am to 12 pm PDT. Members of the committee will hear updates from the California Office of the Surgeon General, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), and the UCLA/UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN).

This meeting is open to the public – Register Here.

Event Materials:

 June 15, 2023 TIPC Meeting Agenda

October 2022 Data Report: 899,000 Medi-Cal Beneficiaries Screened for ACEs

The ACEs Aware initiative has released a new quarterly data report detailing the number of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) screenings conducted for children and adults in California and the number of individuals who have completed the “Becoming ACEs Aware in California” training.

Between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, Medi-Cal clinicians conducted more than 1,153,000 ACE screenings of 899,000 unique Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

Between December 4, 2019 and August 31, 2022, more than 26,900 individuals completed the training, including approximately 12,100 Medi-Cal clinicians in…

References
1: California Department of Public Health, Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB), University of California, Davis, Violence Prevention Research Program, California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2011-2017.