Category: DV/IPV

I don’t often give mainstream media articles their own post (we wait for Mondays to do that), but 1.) this one is worth it, and 2.) I will be stepping away from FHO until next Thursday, as I take the girlchild on her 1st round of college visits (!). Huffington Post has a terrific article on police-perpetrated intimate partner violence that, while a long read, is definitely worth your time. I encourage you to spend some time with it and consider how your own programs handle patients who present after being assaulted by law enforcement. I’m proud to say in my former program, we had a very specific process for working with this particular patient group that included a unique law enforcement reporting pathway and 2 person team completing the exam (as these cases were always complex and the extra set of eyes and hands was welcomed). The whole piece is a great jumping off point for a team discussion. Even if you only provide sexual assault care, there’s still a conversation to be had about the unique needs and concerns of patients who present after police-perpetrated violence.

The National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health has a webinar coming up at the end of the month that I think could be very informative for forensic clinicians as we talk to our patients about their health status and needs for follow-up care and referrals. Responding to Mental Health Crisis: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Conversation About Diagnosis, Treatment and Medication will be held June 28th at 2pm CT. From the announcement:

In our services it sometimes feels uncomfortable to initiate conversations with survivors about mental health challenges and psychiatric diagnosis and about medication and other approaches to treatment. Our own views and our experiences with mental health systems can contribute to misunderstandings and disconnection for people we intend to assist. This webinar will consider ways to approach these conversations that are transparent about our intentions, support learning about individual preferences, and are respectful of the range of views.

Register for the session here.

The Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention is hosting a webinar, Intimate Partner Violence and Strangulation in the Deaf Community. It will be held May 31st at 1pm ET. From the announcement:

This previously recorded webinar will provide an in-depth look at intimate partner violence and strangulation with the deaf community. Several case studies will be used to demonstrate the importance of understanding the unique differences between hearing and deaf and hard of hearing peoples’ experience of intimate partner violence and strangulation. Special concerns and challenges such as the use of interpreters, interviews, and working with deaf people who may have language deprivation (little or no sign language) will also be addressed.

Register for the webinar here.

Sorry about no post yesterday–I have no excuse, I just flaked (I was playing catch up after being gone all last week). But I’m back, with a new webinar from Futures Without Violence, and it’s a good topic. Patient-Centered Approach to Domestic Violence in Health Settings is being offered May 25th at 3pm ET. The session will be reviewing some new resources, specifically http://ipvhealth.org/ and http://ipvhealthpartners.org/. CMEs are available for physicians {and it looks like CEs for nurses licensed in CA(?)}. From the announcement:

With the screening and brief counseling recommendations in the US Preventive Service Task Force, many are looking for the best evidence-based screening tool for domestic violence to use in health settings. However, research suggests that disclosure-based responses to domestic violence are limiting because they constrain our opportunities for prevention and limits education to only those who are ready to disclose and who have been screened appropriately. Additionally, in the quest for the right screening question, the intervention is often overlooked. This webinar offers an approach that incorporates patient-centered brief interventions that are evidence-based and easy-to-implement as well as domestic violence advocacy partnership-building strategies. This webinar will feature new online tools for health providers and advocates, www.IPVhealth.org and www.IPVhealthpartners.org.

I haven’t reviewed the new sites they’re highlighting, but I’m always in favor of looking at how we better serve these patients and collaborate with community partners, so my hope is these will be valuable. Don’t forget, IAFN also has education guidelines that “select a standardized body of scientific knowledge for the medical/forensic evaluation of the patient experiencing IPV”. If you don’t have a copy, you can download the IPV Education Guidelines here.

Futures Without Violence is hosting a webinar next week on school-based health services, adolescent health and anticipatory guidance for dating and sexual violence and harassment. The session will be April 27th at 6:30pm ET (yes, it’s a late one). From the announcement:

Teens experiencing relationship abuse are more likely to report unhealthy diet behaviors, engage in substance abuse, and report having suicidal thoughts. Given these sobering facts, adolescent relationship abuse is a major health concern facing teens today, and health care providers have a unique role to play in preventing it. Not only can they provide valuable prevention messages to help their patients build healthy relationships, but medical professionals are also uniquely positioned to help those exposed to abuse access the resources they need.

Clinical settings that serve adolescents in particular, such as confidential teen clinics and school health centers, are strategic sites for adolescent health promotion, prevention, and intervention. Unfortunately, the standard-of-care within adolescent health settings does not currently include specified protocols to assess for or intervene to reduce dating and sexual violence and harassment. This webinar will provide participants with strategies and tools to provide universal education on safe, consensual and healthy relationships, as well as models for trauma-informed responses to disclosure of DSV.

(My one wish for Futures Without Violence is that they would publicize their events a little sooner, but alas, here we are, another intriguing topic with not much notice.)

I just got notice of this in my inbox this morning, so apologies for the late notice: OJP is hosting a webinar, Relationship Dynamics and their Contribution to Adolescent Relationships and Dating Violence. If this title looks familiar it’s because it was originally slated for last month, but a technical difficulty caused them to reschedule it for March 30th at 2pm ET. From the announcement:

Teen dating violence is a common and serious public health problem that persists into adulthood. While it is evident that relationship dynamics are important to consider in teen dating violence, there is limited understanding about how these relational interactions shape relationships and impact dating violence among youth. Furthermore, current intervention and prevention efforts generally do not consider and incorporate these relationship dynamics into their strategies.

This webinar will provide newly emerging information from two NIJ-funded longitudinal studies regarding important relationship dynamic contexts in dating violence among youth. In the first presentation, Drs. Michael Lorber and Amy Smith Slep will discuss the role of negative interaction patterns in dating relationships and violence over time in a sample of 200 adolescent dating couples in New York City. In the second presentation, Drs. Megan Bair-Merritt and Ty Ridenour will present findings about how daily changes in relational factors like feelings of jealousy, intimacy, and instrumental support are associated with dating violence victimization and perpetration in a sample of 158 high-risk adolescent females. Kelly Miller with the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence will provide an overview of the possible impact of the presented research on primary prevention strategies on adolescent relationship abuse and how these studies can better inform approaches across the socioecological level.

Register here.

There’s an interesting new study looking at the rates of revictimization for adults who experienced teen dating violence. The study, Revictimization After Adolescent Dating Violence in a Matched, National Sample of Youth, found that “…heterosexual victims of teen dating violence were significantly more likely to be re-victimized five years later compared to their non-victim counterparts with other similar risk factors. Those who were victims again, by the five-year mark, were also more likely to be re-victimized by romantic partners 12 years later.” (source)

Anytime you entertain the idea that forensic healthcare is limited to response and has no place in the prevention world, or you think to yourself, prevention work is for other folks, read studies like this that really drive home how important it is that we all are reaching beyond documenting injuries. Prevention is a key pillar in all aspects of healthcare, ours included.

Read more about the study over at the Washington Post.

There’s new research available on the teen dating violence. NIJ has an overview of the study, the National Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV), on their site. The study is wide-ranging, looking at sexual harassment, physical and sexual violence, and psychological abuse. It also examines perpetration, as well as victimization. Worth checking out.

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and there are plenty of good resources available to make you even better at caring for this patient population:

Love Is Respect has both twitter chats (#teendvchat) and webinars, plus Respect Week, February 13-17 (download the guide here). You can check out all of their offerings, and downloadable media on their dedicated page.

VAWnet has a special collection just published on preventing and responding to teen dating violence.

Break the Cycle has a conversation guide for parents on talking to teens about healthy relationships. Don’t let the parent part deter you–there’s plenty in this that will make you better at talking to your adolescent patients.

Check out CDC’s Dating Matters online training; there’s also an interactive guide to informing policy, for those of you who have your hands in that arena.

Interested in some of the research on this topic? You’ll find a solid overview from NIJ here; fact sheet from CDC here (with references).

The National LGBTQ Institute on IPV is hosting a webinar in honor of TDVAM on a topic particularly interesting to me, There’s No One I Can Trust: Rethinking Mandatory Reporting Practices on February 21st at 12pm PST. [I am very conflicted on the issue of mandatory reporting, so I am going to try and attend this one.]

A couple newer resources available for (and about) LGBTQ patients:

1. CDC has some infographics about sexual minority youth and violence–in schools, in relationships, etc. Trans- youth aren’t specified in this data, so be mindful of that omission, but if you’re considering some targeted programming, or you want to make it clear that your services are inclusive by adding this material to your waiting area, these are a good addition to your resource library.
2. Futures Without Violence published some safety cards for LGBTQ IPV materials: a poster; safety cards (in English and Spanish); and a trans-/gender non-conforming safety card (in English and Spanish). They’re free downloads or you can order hard copies (also free) from their store. The dedicated web page also has some tips and other resources.

Here’s a project to get excited about: IAFN just released the non-fatal strangulation documentation toolkit, available for free download (PDF). As noted in the preface, the toolkit “provides the forensic nurse with detailed guidance on assessment techniques, documentation, and evidence collection for this patient population. This toolkit also provides documents such as discharge instructions and sample policies that can be adjusted to best suit your institution and your forensic practice.” I encourage you to share widely, particularly with your ED physician and nursing colleagues (you’ll notice there is emergency medicine representation on the task force that developed this document).

We’ve been pretty hungry for guidance like this, so my hunch is this will be a popular post 🙂

{see also: Strangulation Position Paper, strangulation case review (fee)}

I’m really pretty well consumed with the election coverage, or at least my Twitter feed is (and my FB feed, and my Instagram feed). I fear until the election is over, this weekly feature will be a little sad. Sure, there are other things happening in the world, but I have no idea what. So here’s what little I’ve been reading since last we spoke:

 A familiar story

This hurt me on so many levels

A lovely tribute

As someone with chronic pain I feel all of this

The magnitude of stalking

One paper’s response to threats

A long, but fascinating, read

The sexism of the likability trap

The Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention has a webinar coming up: The Development and Operation of a Strangulation Response Team. The session will be held October 4th at 12pm CT. Click through for details: