Debate contribution: Department of Justice: Trauma-informed Practice
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Department of Justice: Trauma-informed Practice
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5762132
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Without doubt, it is important that we invest earlier. We know from the research conducted by the tackling paramilitarism and organised crime programme that numbers of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are higher in Northern Ireland than in other regions and that they have significant consequences for the life outcomes of young people. Young people with high ACE scores are more likely to engage negatively with the justice system, to have poor mental health, to suffer from addictions and to not be economically active or have secure accommodation. We have to consider all those things when responding to those adverse childhood experiences, because the bit of that research that gets missed is that an adverse childhood experience does not, in itself, set a child on that path. If they have positive experiences that counterbalance and offset that and if they get the right support at the right time, many of those children will go on to lead productive and constructive lives. It is therefore in all our interests to find ways to invest much earlier in our young people who have suffered trauma.
182 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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