Drugs and AlcoholACEs at Cork Simon: exploring the connection between early trauma and later negative life events among Cork Simon service users.Cork Simon Community works with some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people. We operate a ‘low threshold’ service, meaning we accept and support people with multiple needs, chronic addictions and challenging behaviours. As a consequence we often work with people excluded from other services - people who have no-where else to turn. We work in solidarity with men and women over the age of 18 and each year support about 1,200 people on their pathway back to independent or supported living. Our door is always open and we support people for as long as they need us. ACE stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. These traumatic events, experienced before the age of 18, have been shown to have long-term negative impacts on health and well-being. Children are especially sensitive to repeated trauma because their brains and bodies are just developing. High doses of adversity during childhood have been found to alter brain development as well as the immune system, with serious implications for later physical, mental and social health. ACE scores range from 0 to 10 and are assessed through a simple 10 question survey, with each question representing an area of trauma. Answering yes to a question counts as one ACE. 5 of the 10 types of childhood trauma measured through the ACE questionnaire are personal and five relate to other family membersMental healthrisk factorsFamily backgroundFamily roleLife circumstancesLife eventCrime against persons (assault / abuse / intimidation) ChildAdolescent / youth (teenager / young person)IrelandCork2017-10Cork Simon CommunityReport

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