“If it’s something that you can prevent, then…you’re learning from your past what not to do with your child,” said Cindy Lau, Regional Violence Prevention Planner, St. Mary Corwin.
The SCAN Program at Southern Colorado Family Medicine at the St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center has begun to screen it’s patients for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s ), like CDV in order to prevent history from repeating itself. This new program enables expecting parents, by acknowledging the adversities they struggled with in childhood, to avoid exposing their children to the same painful and damaging experiences they faced growing up in an unstable homes.
In addition, by offering parenting classes and helping families find homes and employment, SCAN is working to lower the risk of the next generation being forced to struggle with the same negative childhood experiences their parents endured in childhood.
CDV and other ACE’s don’t have to be inherited and passed on to the next generation. The repetitive nature of ACEs can be disrupted from one generation to the next. And thanks to programs like SCAN, this is happening for many children in Colorado.