The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 74(6), 541-550. What to do with the information: Like all screenings, a trauma screening such as the ACEs questionnaire is meant to be used only to indicate the need (or lack thereof) for further assessment and does need constitute a thorough assessment in-and-of itself. The ACE has individual sub-tests which look at different areas of language. It is also important to use a screening tool that is sufficiently comprehensive and provides guidelines for determining the need for further assessment (such as the ACEs questionnaire; revised version provided here; seehere for differences between the revised and the original version). Citizenship Counts! Finally, it is critically important that the clinician confirms that a client with trauma history feels safe and regulated before leaving the office. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series 57. Concerns over re-traumatizing clients are valid, but the risk can be mitigated through observance of several simple guidelines. This is because, while retrospective recall is not perfectly accurate when compared to prospective reports and may be shaped by the client’s current disposition (e.g., neurotic clients may be more likely to recall adverse childhood experiences than highly agreeable clients), it is mostly accurate and is associated with a wide variety of co-morbidities. There are many “grounding techniques” that can be used to bring the client’s awareness back to the safety of the present moment. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014. How to Administer a Trauma Screening Using the ACEs Questionnaire. Said another way, completing the ACEs questionnaire with your client is a good place to start your trauma screening, but an insufficient place to stop. Screening for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Questionnaire is a 10-item self-report measure developed for the ACE study to identify childhood experiences of … Briere, J. (2002). This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Researchers are encouraged to use the ACE-IQ materials on this site, and in doing so to reference WHO as the source, using the following citation: World Health Organization. Almost all the questions have three or all four of the choices are correct, but you have to somehow figure out the answer ACE wants. For instance, though it is important to screen early in the treatment process, the clinician should always preference the client’s safety by balancing the need for this information with the client’s trust in and comfort with the clinician. Coronavirus disease outbreak (COVID-2019), Coronavirus disease outbreak (COVID-19) », Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability (VIP), Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ). You can’t just give up working on everything and expect it to go well. The ACE-IQ question-by-question guide explains the purpose of each question and the meaning of key terms. There is some disagreement in the research literature on this topic, but the conclusion is generally that retrospective recall should be used and trusted by clinicians when higher quality data is not available (as it often will not be in outpatient treatment). The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment, 2nd Edition. Reuben, A., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Belsky, D. W., Harrington, H., Schroeder, F., … & Danese, A. This is the third time I've taken this dammed exam, and I have to agree with most of the people on this site that this test does not accurately, test your on situations from a real workplace scenario. ACE'S TEST IS RIDICULOUS!!!!! There are many “grounding techniques” that can be used to bring the client’s awareness back to the safety of the present moment. Depending on client and contextual factors (e.g., the absence of space for a private conversation), it may be better to have client complete the ACEs questionnaire on paper rather than verbally through an interview and doing so does not jeopardize the validity of the results. If the screening indicates that further assessment is needed, the clinician should warmly but directly investigate the client’s trauma history (again, preferencing directness over avoidance, but allowing the client decide if/when the questions become too distressing) and formulate a trauma-informed treatment plan.