Open AccessPromoting equity and resilience: Wellness navigators’ role in addressing adverse childhood experiences.
Author(s) -
Miya L. Barnett,
Maryam KiaKeating,
Andria B Ruth,
Mayra Alejandra Villalba García
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
clinical practice inpediatric psychology/clinical practice in pediatric psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-4834
pISSN - 2169-4826
DOI - 10.1037/cpp0000320
Subject(s) - health equity , medicine , qualitative research , referral , mental health , health care , medical home , psychological resilience , context (archaeology) , public health , nursing , psychology , family medicine , psychiatry , primary care , paleontology , social science , sociology , economics , biology , economic growth , psychotherapist
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have demonstrable negative effects on long-term physical and mental health. Racial and ethnic minority children disproportionally experience ACEs due to the impacts of structural inequality and discrimination, which could drive health disparities. Pediatric settings offer an opportune context to address ACEs and improve health equity, and to link families to the necessary resources to promote resilience. Wellness navigators (WNs), who can reflect patients' cultural, linguistic, and other shared characteristics, have the potential to improve patient care and integrated behavioral health services to mitigate the public health impact of ACEs. In the current study, bilingual and bicultural WNs helped to deliver an ACEs screening and response to predominately Latinx patients in a pediatric service setting.