Trauma sensitive group sets Havre screening of 'Resilience'

Havre Daily News staff

A team working to help Havre youth dealing with traumatic childhoods is bringing an award-winnind documentary to Havre to show people how they can make a difference.

Havre’s Trauma Sensitive School Initiative, a community partnership, is sponsoring a viewing of the 2016 film “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and Science of Hope Monday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. in Hensler Auditorium, Applied Technology Center, on the Montana State University-Northern Campus.

The film, directed by James Redford and produced by Redford and Karen Pritzker, looks at at the Acute Childhood Experiences study that, during a time when it was controversial to even think of asking patients about taboo subjects, dared to ask questions like, Were you sexually abused as a child? Did you have a parent who was an alcoholic? The answers produced a public health revelation, a release about the Havre screening said.

“Researchers have recently discovered a dangerous biological syndrome caused by abuse and neglect during childhood,” an entry about the film on the KPJR website says. “As the new documentary ‘Resilience’ reveals, toxic stress can trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, putting them at a greater risk for disease, homelessness, prison time, and early death.

“While the broader impacts of poverty worsen the risk, no segment of society is immune,” the entry says. “‘Resilience,’ however, also chronicles the dawn of a movement that is determined to fight back. Trailblazers in pediatrics, education, and social welfare are using cutting-edge science and field-tested therapies to protect children from the insidious effects of toxic stress — and the dark legacy of a childhood that no child would choose.”

For the first time, the loss of a parent through death, divorce or incarceration and other traumatic childhood experiences such as living with an alcoholic parent or being sexually abused was conclusively linked to both physical and mental health problems later in life, the release said. ACE, or Acute Childhood Experiences scores, are now understood to lead to early onset heart disease, diabetes, asthma. addiction and depression.

Understanding that a broken-hearted child is more likely to suffer from mental and physical illnesses as an adult has professionals of all kinds asking, How can we help children before their physical and mental health problems emerge as adults?

The film follows pioneering individuals who looked at the ACEs research and the emerging science of toxic stress and asked, “Why are we waiting?”

“Resilience” chronicles the promising beginnings of a national movement to prevent childhood trauma, treat toxic stress, and greatly improve the health of future generations, the release said.

Representatives of the partners in Havre’s Trauma Sensitive Schools Initiative —  Havre Public Schools, Bullhook Community Health Center, District 4 Human Resources Development Center, Montana State University-Northern, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line and others — said they are excited to provide this opportunity to learn more about Resilience and Hope and how everyone all can make a difference on the Hi-Line.

All interested people are invited to attend.

For more information, people can call Curtis Smeby at 390-3471.