Why Should Health and Wellbeing Matter to Doctors?

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1093/oso/9780192845184.003.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 72-89

Author(s):

David Beaumont

Keyword(s):

Allostatic Load ◽

Spiritual Health ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Health And Wellbeing ◽

Learned Optimism ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

The Social ◽

Response To Stress ◽

And Coping

Health and wellbeing as central to medical practice. In 2015/2016, author was president of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the revamp of the RACP’s annual Congress, featuring Sir Harry Burns, who gave the closing plenary address, exploring the social determinants of health. The role of chronic stress in disease (from Aaron Antonovsky’s 1979 book, Health, Stress, and Coping). The role of adverse childhood experiences and their effect on the amygdala. The hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis and the hormonal cascade. The brain’s response to stress: allostasis. The concept of allostatic load and its role in chronic inflammation, from the work of Professor Sheldon Cohen and others. The role of inflammation in type 2 diabetes. Sir Harry Burns’ concept of locus of control, and the impact of adverse childhood events on glucocorticosteroid receptors. Sir Michael Marmot and the Whitehall I and II studies. Anaesthetist Robin Youngson and compassion in palliative care. Professor Martin Seligman’s concept of learned optimism. Implications for the future of general practice. The importance of spiritual health to indigenous peoples. Māori model of health (te whare tapa whā) developed by Professor Sir Mason Durie, which incorporates spiritual health. ‘Our patients deserve to be treated as people, but doctors are people too.’

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ACEs policy and adults: The missing role of sexual abuse

Scottish Affairs ◽

10.3366/scot.2020.0342 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 529-537

Author(s):

Sarah Nelson

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Adult Survivors ◽

Health Issues ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Health And Wellbeing ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

Mental And Physical Health

Traumatised adults have been rather neglected in policy on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in comparison with children. Yet the key message from the original ACE studies was the need to change the way adults with ill health are heard, understood, diagnosed and treated. Within ACEs policy, childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has also had marginal attention. This paper traces how adult survivors of CSA provided the spark for the first and subsequent ACE studies, describing the serious mental and physical health issues this trauma can bring throughout the lifecourse. It raises the possibility that some of the original ten ACEs may be more impactful to health and wellbeing over the lifecourse than others and should receive greater priority in terms of prevention and recovery. A series of questions is asked about how physical and mental health services are responding, and how they may need to be monitored in order to fully integrate the needs of CSA survivors into current Scottish ACEs policy.

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Early Adverse Childhood Experiences and Self-Control Development among Youth in Fragile Families

Youth & Society ◽

10.1177/0044118x21996378 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0044118X2199637

Author(s):

Melissa S. Jones ◽

Hayley Pierce ◽

Constance L. Chapple

Keyword(s):

Life Course ◽

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Behavioral Outcomes ◽

Self Control ◽

Fragile Families ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Considerable Research ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

Using Data

Though considerable research links both a lack of self-control and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to a variety of negative health and behavioral outcomes, few studies to date have explored whether ACEs are associated with deficits in self-control. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW; n = 3,444) and a life course theoretical framework, this study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining the relationships between individual ACEs, cumulative ACEs, timing of ACEs, and durations of early ACEs and self-control development among youth. Our results indicate that as the number of ACEs (by age 5) experienced incrementally increases, the likelihood of reported self-control decreases. Moreover, when it comes to the timing and duration of ACE exposure, ACEs that are high but late, intermittent, or chronically high significantly decrease self-control. Based on our findings, researchers should continue to explore the role of ACEs in youth self-control development.

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