Safe States Alliance Annual Conference

Upstream Substance Misuse Prevention Approaches for Adverse Childhood Experiences
Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increases the likelihood of long-term chronic health issues and behavioral health effects, such as heart disease, violence, suicide, and substance use among others. Preventing ACEs has gained increased attention, as states are looking for upstream strategies to address the opioid epidemic.

This presentation will discuss ASTHO's culminating activity of the Building State Health Department Capacity to Use ACEs Data for Prevention of Negative Health Outcomes project, the ACEs Leadership Summit. The summit showcased how five states (AR, OK, VA, WA, and WI) are working with cross-sector partners to address ACEs and strengthen their evidence-based, data-driven, primary prevention, programs and policy. Furthermore, the summit highlighted the importance of delineating the relationship between primary prevention of ACEs and the prevention of substance misuse, violence, and suicide. Robin Matthies from the Wisconsin Department of Health will co-present and highlight her work on elevating ACEs as a cross-cutting issue in Wisconsin.

Building State Capacity to Achieve Widespread Improvements in Infant, Child, and Adolescent Injury and Violence Prevention
The purpose of this session is to share with injury and violence prevention professionals key strategies and resources they can use to improve their injury and violence prevention systems to achieve reductions in injury-related deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits. Launched in November 2018 by the Children’s Safety Network (CSN), in partnership with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), the Child Safety Learning Collaborative (CSLC) builds state and jurisdiction staff capacity to improve injury and violence prevention systems. Resources, strategies, and lessons from the CSLC will be shared.

Advancing and Sustaining State Suicide Prevention: Infrastructure Recommendations
As recent CDC data show[1], suicide rates have increased in nearly all states over the past 15 years. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), in conjunction with a national advisory panel and work groups, created infrastructure guidance to advance state policy and administrative decisions in order to improve sustained suicide prevention efforts around the country.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db241_table.pdf