Camp Lejeune, Onslow County child care providers partner to view research, advance their training

Child care can be a very challenging and rewarding vocation. Children are the future and caring for them calls for patience, understanding and some good humor. For child care providers on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and in Onslow County, additional challenges come along with the military lifestyle when trying to nurture young minds. Military children must face the possibility of parents being deployed and in dangerous situations abroad. To further advance their knowledge and to better equip themselves to meet the obstacles at hand, professionals involved in caring for children from both locations met for a documentary presentation and discussion at the Russel Marine and Family Center on MCB Camp Lejeune, May 18.

“We wanted to watch the documentary to learn more about resilience in children and what they go through, especially military children,” said Michelle Buckson, Family Care Branch child and adult food program assistant. “Growing up in a military family, this matter is important to me.”

The documentary presented the findings of Dr. Robert Anda and Dr. Vincent Felitti, who conducted a mass clinical study on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and adult health. The findings showed a strong correlation between a higher score of ACES and adult health issues such as substance abuse, high blood pressure and diabetes. The documentary showed details of the research and how care providers in different parts of the country are using it to improve services for their clients.

“Taking care of children is a wonderful job,” said Marwan Berry, Heroes Manor Child Development Center infant-toddler lead teacher. “We have to go through a lot of training and stay current with the trends in child health such as this.”

The Onslow County Partnership for Children and Marine Corps Community Services partnered to bring child care professionals together to review the ACES research and discuss ways to apply the training to their practices as a community-wide forum. This was done in hopes to encourage collaboration and foster creativity in how to best implement new ideas.

“Officials at Camp Lejeune spoke about the importance of notifying the community about ACES and how it affects the children of this community,” said Sarah Cavaliere, OCPC program evaluator. “They requested if we could share the documentary with them and to partner up to bring professionals community-wide together to have this discussion.”

ACES is now being used as a score that is factored into health risks. The documentary presented how child care providers are trying to take the knowledge of this and intervene in children’s lives, so they can cope with adversity and not face complications from unresolved experiences later.

“The documentary presents the neuroscience and neuropsychology in a way that is understandable for the non-scientist,” said Ayrien Davis, OCPC child and family advocate. “I’m really excited to have so many people come out, watch and discuss the documentary with us.”

Clinicians in the documentary are adopting a new approach to dealing with difficulties in children. Rather than asking “what is wrong with that child,” they are asking “what is happening to that child.”

“I could relate to much of what the documentary was saying,” said Keyon Jackson infant-pre-kindergarten lead teacher. “It let me know that my observations and experiences were correct and reaffirmed what I knew.”

At the end of the presentation, child care professionals wrote down how they think they can build resiliency in the children they care for as well as within themselves. All their recommendations will be collected and shared amongst each other soon.

“A partnership like this has not been done before,” said Marla Talley, MCCS family care programs manager. “I think collaboration like this will happen again in the future as we discover and learn more.

“It is important to remember military children are connected to a unique lifestyle. They have challenges in their lives and lots of stress. We’re drawn to this field because many of us had such experiences and we want to be a difference maker in the lives of children. This training will further aid us in accomplishing that.”