Categories
Sexual Assault

Screening for Sexual Violence

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape has a tutorial available for download on screening for sexual violence in the healthcare setting. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and probably one we don’t talk about enough. You can download both the implementation guide (PDF) and the contents of the CD-ROM on which the tutorial was originally produced (warning: big file in zip form), free of charge. In addition to the tutorial, there’s a related publication, Put Down the Chart, Pick up the Questions (PDF), which also focuses on screening for sexual violence in the healthcare setting (I saw a similar tool in Illinois from their state health department).

This is a great resource if you are responsible for doing any medical education in your local universities or healthcare system. Particularly good for your ED, OB, family planning and internal medicine folks. There’s even a one-page screening overview (PDF) that’s perfect as a handout.

BTW, VAWNet published an article on this subject in December 2007 that’s worth reading– Screening for Sexual Violence: Gaps in Research and Recommendations for Change (L. Stevens with B. Sheaffer)