ACEs Aware Grantees Gather to Share and Celebrate Provider Engagement, Training, and Communications Successes

On January 12, 2022, more than 130 grantees and their partners gathered for the ACEs Aware: Provider Engagement, Training, and Communications Grantees Closeout & Celebration. The event featured more than 50 speakers who shared their learnings and successes in promoting the ACEs Aware initiative throughout the state. Delivering opening remarks, Matt Schueller, chief of staff for the Office of the California Surgeon General, acknowledged the important role grantees have played in successfully fulfilling the goals of the ACEs Aware initiative, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Participants celebrated grants that were awarded in June 2020 to 100 organizations across California to expand the impact of the ACEs Aware initiative. With three areas of focus — provider training, provider engagement, and communications — the grants have funded a wide range of activities to inform and educate Medi-Cal providers about the importance of screening for ACEs and toxic stress and responding with trauma-informed care. The event offered grantees an opportunity to join together to reflect on their successes and accomplishments.

Provider Training

Grantees produced 35 new trainings under the grants to help educate Medi-Cal providers about the importance of incorporating ACE screening into their clinical practice, using clinical protocols to determine evidence-based treatment plans, and providing trauma-informed care across settings. Grantees combined information about the science of ACEs and toxic stress with their own experience as community organizations to develop specialized trainings, including for reproductive health, early childhood, and indigenous communities.

Provider Engagement

Provider engagement grants offered opportunities for clinical teams and other stakeholders to share lessons learned and best practices, raise awareness about ACEs, and build learning communities tailored to specific geographic areas, patient populations, clinical teams, and practice settings. Provider engagement sessions have strengthened participants’ knowledge of ACEs and toxic stress, boosted their confidence in ACE screening and treatment, and helped them shift their organizations toward a culture of trauma-informed care. Between June 2020 and December 2021, ACEs Aware provider engagement grantees engaged with nearly 20,000 individuals across California.

Practice Papers

More than 20 provider engagement grantees were awarded funding to develop practice papers highlighting promising strategies and lessons learned, as well as new research around ACE screening and trauma-informed systems of care. The practice papers cover a broad range of topics, including screening adolescents and immigrant youth for ACEs; teaching medical residents about ACEs, toxic stress, and ACE screening; implementing ACE screening and trauma-informed care in small health care practices and federally qualified health centers; and the role of accountable communities for health and community information exchanges in networks of care.

Communications

Communications grantees developed outreach materials customized for specific audiences to broaden the reach of ACEs Aware and its goals. Grantees utilized a diverse array of communications channels , including videos, podcasts, and billboards, to promote their messages.

Building Trauma-Informed Networks of Care

In January 2021, ACEs Aware awarded eight Network of Care Implementation grants, totaling $22.9 million, and 26 Network of Care Planning grants totaling $7.56 million to communities across California. The planning grants concluded in September 2021, but the implementation grantees are continuing their activities to engage across sectors and with clinicians to advance ACE screening and response in a comprehensive manner that will ultimately lead to tracking outcomes based on interventions provided in a clinical setting and beyond.

View highlights from the diverse and impactful work that took place around California:

Stay tuned for updates from our network of care grants in the coming months.