PLEASE READ THROUGH FOR UPDATED INFO:
Sorry that this is a very last minute post (I just got the announcement for it this morning, so subscribers, you’re probably not going to even see this until it’s too late), but the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices is holding a webinar TODAY (3/17/09) from 2-3:30pm ET titled The Future of DNA: Collecting DNA in High Volume Crimes.
And we’re live! I am pleased to announce the unveiling of the National SANE Sustainability TA blog (a project of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, funded by the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women). Because I maintain that site, in my role as project manager, you will start to see some cross-referencing between the two blogs. Although the project focuses on sexual assault (across the lifespan, BTW), the resources posted there will be useful for any program manager, particularly nonprofit healthcare program managers. Sadly, there’s no email subscriber service there, but there is an RSS feed for your daily doses of sustainability information…http://www.nsvrc.org/SANE-blog.
JWI, who has produced many quality teleconferences on domestic violence topics, has recently announced their latest one: The Chris Brown/Rihanna case: What we can learn from the media’s coverage of this case to use in our work with teens and their families. The teleconference is scheduled for Tuesday, March 24th, from 12pm-1pm ET; cost is $25 for non-members (members attend for free). Pre-registration is required.
NDAA just published a couple new bulletins, including one co-authored by Joanne Archambault, Kim Lonsway (both of EVAW), and David Lisak (who you may know from his research on undetected rapists). False Reports: Moving Beyond the Issue to Successfully Investigate and Prosecute Non-Stranger Sexual Assaults (PDF) is probably another one of those items to share at your next SART or MDT meeting. Honestly, though, the sheer amount of misinformation circulating in our professional circles about the rates of false reports makes this a must-read regardless of your profession.
Credit: Kevin Moore, In Contempt via Alas, A Blog
OVC‘s next Web Forum will be on providing services to victims of bullying. As with their other forums, you can submit questions in advance, and then return on March 18th at 2pm ET for the live discussion. To read more about the forum and the featured experts, click here. To submit questions, follow this link. An index of previous forum topics, with archived questions and responses, can be found here.
UNICEF/UN Radio produced a podcast on maternal health last fall, Delivering on the Front Lines: Maternal Health in Conflict, Post-Conflict and Emergency Situations. The podcast features a panel of experts who examine the impact war and other emergent situations have on pregnant women and new mothers. “During armed conflict, the well-being of women is threatened by physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and vital maternal care services are typically disrupted by the devastation of health infrastructure.” You can listen to the 23 minute podcast here.
[Warning: flight of ideas is about to ensue…]
Tuesday night Joy Behar interviewed Robin Givens, Denise Brown, Erin Gray and Victor Rivers about domestic violence on Larry King Live. I was happy to hear Victor talk about the importance of engaging men in DV prevention and the dangers of bystander behavior, and it reminded me of the documentary in which he had been featured many years ago, Breaking the Silence: Journeys of Hope (PBS).
I was asked yesterday what my go-to resources are for information on the Web. If I had to put together my can’t live without list for growing myself professionally, what would be on it? Obviously, my choices are personal ones, based on my forensic specialties (SA, DV, elder abuse) and my other revenue-generating interests (technology, healthcare economics, writing, presenting). Probably not universally appealing stuff. But if pressed (which I was), you can check out my top 10 after the jump:
Davis Plus, those nice people who make the drug guides, have an online wound care tutorial that’s brief and easy to use (requires Flash). For those of you who need a little refresher on wound types and dressings (and some gnarly photos to go along with them), here’s a little quicky for your viewing pleasure. There’s also a self-assessment at the end, should you want to test your knowledge.
I had you at “gnarly photos”, didn’t I?
The University of Utah Eccles Health Science Library has an online firearms tutorial available here. It’s easy to use and has almost no bells and whistles (but it has photos!) so you should be able to view this on any computer. I’m not sure when the course was last updated (some of the statistics look old), but the mechanics of firearms and the appearance of gunshot wounds haven’t really changed, so age shouldn’t be a significant issue. It was created for pathologists, meaning it has a medical, rather than law enforcement, flavor.
On the Diane Rehm Show yesterday, Diane interviewed the authors of the new book Picking Cotton, about the circumstances that led to the writing of the book:
A rape victim mistakenly accused Ronald Cotton of being her attacker. He served eleven years in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him. They both join Diane [Rehm] to present their joint memoir of injustice and forgiveness.
Brown Medical School, along with several other organizations, put together an online tutorial for emergency healthcare providers on human trafficking. I’m unsure when the tutorial was created (if someone knows, please pass that along), but it appears to be no older than 2005 based on the materials cited, so info is relatively current. Much of it is text-based, but it is well-linked in many places.
From the archives (since January 2023):
Hepatitis is the often forgotten conversation when it comes to sexual assault medical-forensic care. I find a lot of folks are skipping over it in trainings and in working individually with patients, even though we know that many of our patients may be at greater risk for contracting hepatitis than HIV. The University of Washington and the Seattle STD/HIV Prevention Training Center have teamed up for an online course on viral hepatitis, funded by the CDC.
Violence Against Women has a free podcast available based on the 2008 article, When will adolescents tell someone about dating violence victimization? (Black, et al. Vol. 14, No. 7, 741-758). You can read an abstract of the article here.
SORRY: THIS LINK APPEARS TO BE BROKEN. I HAVE CONTACTED THE PUBLISHER AND WILL POST A NEW LINK IF I RECEIVE ONE.
Sunday is International Women’s Day, and the 2009 United Nations theme being used for the day, fittingly enough, is Women and Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have created networks in honor of IWD; there are also almost one thousand events in more than 60 countries in honor of the day. This includes more than 300 events in the US and Canada, alone. Although some of these events have already occurred, there are still plenty happening over the weekend.
Let us know if you end up attending one!
(March is Traumatic Brain Injury Month…)
Last November, the Northeast Center for Special Care recorded a podcast on domestic violence and traumatic brain injury. The interview, conducted with a staff member from the NY Coalition Against Domestic Violence, offers a clear, basic snapshot of the issue in a manageable, bite-sized portion (it’s only 26 minutes long). Good for clinicians new to the issue…
The US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, has a free PTSD101 program for healthcare professionals. The courses contained in the program (and there are many), are divided into 6 different categories and include topics such as vicarious traumatization, PTSD and sexual assault, combat stress injuries, and cultural dimensions of PTSD. The list is pretty extensive. Best of all? CEs available for everyone.
There’s a lot of chatter in my on-line world right now about the so-called No-Lie MRI (or as it’s known in the scientific community, fMRI, f=functional). Some people believe brain imaging, alone or as one tool in a larger arsenal, may provide the ability to determine if someone is lying. The legal world, not surprisingly, is fascinated by this concept, but it seems like it’s a long way from being able to meet Daubert/Frye standards. Still, people are certainly talking about the potential this technology could have and the ethics of using it (on assailants, yes, but also on victims).