C - Toxic Stress in Children: Beyond Aces and Into Relational Health

By attending the activity learners will understand the need to address the impact of toxic stress by creating awareness about the underlying causes, how it impacts children’s physiology, brain development, and future health outcomes. Learners will also be able to formulate a plan to help mitigate the impact of toxic stress on children by focusing on relational health as a solution to the problem of toxic stress. The activity will take learners through a real life case of a patient who experienced early life adversity from infancy into toddlerhood and how a family by providing them with a safe stable nurturing relationship improved their health outcomes. Learners will also have a deeper understanding of the science behind toxic stress and how adverse childhood experiences, while helpful, are limited when discussing the larger overall concept of early life adversity in children due to non-ACE related factors such as historical trauma, racism, and system attacks on marginalized communities.