Evaluation of the Early Impact of the UCLA/UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN)

The authors present results and recommendations based on an evaluation of the impact of the UCLA/UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN) on its goals of promoting screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; for example, abuse and neglect) and trauma-informed health care (TIHC) for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The authors found that UCAAN has had a major impact on the capacity of individual clinicians who treat Medi-Cal beneficiaries to provide TIHC, largely through the Becoming ACEs Aware (BAA) training program. The BAA course has trained and continues to train a significant proportion of Medi-Cal primary care clinicians, and the survey results indicate that the impact of the training on care and on patients is lasting. UCAAN's impact on system-level change has understandably been more gradual. There have been positive impacts, most clearly demonstrated by the fact that clinics have been reimbursed for providing ACE screening and response to more than 2 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries. However, Medi-Cal clinicians who have been trained to provide ACE screening and response indicate that they continue to face barriers to providing TIHC in the clinics in which they work. UCAAN is making important contributions to addressing these barriers. Most importantly, the pilot programs have made major contributions to knowledge of how ACE screening and response and TIHC more generally can be implemented throughout the health care system.