Well, it’s hard to believe, but I won’t be stepping foot in an airport for 5 weeks. Just one road trip this week to spend some qulity time with the Army in Charlottesville, but aside from that, my work is all local. Gives me a little breathing room, and some time to catch up on odds and ends. So here’s what I’ve been reading since last we spoke:
Category: Sexual Assault
Seeing that June 15th is World Elder Abuse Day, I thought I’d get a few posts up on the topic. First up is the Summer 2013 newsletter from the Resource Sharing Project, featuring 2 articles of interest: “Providing Services to People Assaulted In Care Facilities” (PDF) by Holly Ramsey-Klawsnik, Ph.D and “Responding to Older Victims of Sexual Abuse: Promising Practices from OVW Abuse in Later Life Program Grantees” (PDF) by Bonnie Brandl and Madeline Kasper.
Read the complete issue online here.
I had a comment by a reader recently regarding trauma-informed care and kids, in which she mentioned that trauma and trauma-informed care isn’t just limited to abuse and violence. Agreed, and in light of that comment, I figured I’d present a CE offering (for nurses) that looks at the issues in broader terms–this one from Healthcare Toolbox (read more about them here). They have a free audio program, Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress that just requires registration to access.
The Sexual Violence Justice Institute at MNCASA is hosting a webinar, Without a Disclosure: One Community’s Approach to Addressing Sex Trafficking of Minors. The session will be held June 26th from 12-1:30 pm CT.
Head over to VAWnet for an excellent new blog post from them on the connection between sexting and sexual violence. Make sure to spend some time clicking thru the links, particularly their special collection, Safety and Privacy in a Digital World.
First off, thanks for the lovely comments and emails from last week’s post. I heart FHO readers in a big way. Secondly, I know it’s not Monday where most of you are, but it is Monday here (albeit really, really early on Monday here). So since I’m awake, how about a run down of what I’ve been reading since last we spoke:
The next SAFEta webinar is one near and dear to my heart: Sexual Assault and the Military Patient. It’s going to be held July 9th at 2pm ET. Sasha Rutizer is the featured presenter, and as an aside, she and I will be doing a live session together at the IAFN conference this year in Anaheim on the related topic, Navigating Military Justice: The Forensic Nurse’s Role as Witness and Expert Consultant. Hope you can join us for that.
Here’s an interesting one for those of us who spend a lot of time in court (or working to prepare others to testify): the National Child Protection Training Center is offering a webinar, Juror Expectations of Evidence in Child Maltreatment Prosecutions June 20th at 2pm CT. Cost for attendance is $30. From the website:
Much attention has been given to the “CSI Effect” including arguments that no such effect exists or even that it favors the prosecution. This session will address what research shows juries expect generally in sexual assault cases and how child sexual abuse cases can be presented to help meet these expectations. This presentation is useful for both investigators and prosecutors.
Time once again for Articles of Note, our monthly review of what’s new and noteworthy in the peer-reviewed literature. This is a particularly good list–there’s just so much that’s interesting in the journals right now. As always, email me if you want the word doc. Otherwise the embedded doc should have working hyperlinks (thank you Scribd for finally making that change) and is easy to print.
Big “C” Conversations
When I was in Kansas City last week one of my sessions was geared toward emerging issues in forensic healthcare. I was asked to speak on the topic, and while I understand that the request was geared more towards a “specific populations and circumstances” kind of talk, I decided to take it in a slightly different direction. Instead we talked about some of the Big “C” Conversations I have been having with people in my travels. The kinds of conversation topics that are almost universally applicable no matter where people are practicing, whether it’s North America or Australia, rural or urban. That’s not to say that the conversations about specific populations and circumstances aren’t also universal–they absolutely are. But they aren’t emerging issues. They have been an important part of our clinical knowledge base from the very beginning. Some of the issues I’ve noted below have been, too–but we haven’t necessarily explored them as much as a collective of healthcare providers as I’d like to see.
The Fenway Institute’s National LGBT Health Education Center is offering a webinar May 22nd at 2pm ET, Same-Sex Domestic Violence: Considerations, Suggestions and Resources. Information after the jump:
The Sexual Assault Report (disclosure: I am on the editorial board) has made public the recent article by Nancy Ritter from the National Institute of Justice, Untested Evidence in Sexual Assault Cases: Using Research to Guide Policy and Practice (PDF).
JAMA Pediatrics has the new article by David Finkelhor and colleagues available online in advance of the print version: Violence, Crime and Abuse Exposure in a National Sample of Children and Youth. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can read a synopsis of the research over at MedPage Today for free. Allegedly there are CMEs attached the MedPage article, although I couldn’t see where that information was available once I clicked on the article link. Maybe you’ll have better luck.
No articles to recount this week–I spent Mother’s Day thoroughly engaged with my family to the exclusion of all things media-related. So a quick post about an upcoming webinar on a topic not widely covered: FORGE is offering a session, Disability and Transgender Survivors: Empowering Providers Who Work with Multiply Marginalized Populations. It will be held May 23rd from 2-3:30 pm CT.
Have you seen the CDC’s new Understanding Evidence site? It’s specifically geared toward those of us who work in the area of violence, and really, please go spend some time with it. As a bonus–free nursing CEs upon completion of each module. If you’re not sure how to use the new interactive site PreventConnect has a webinar this Friday at 11am PT to help remedy that.
A quick post to wish everyone a happy Nurses Day (in the US, or International Nurses Day, which is Sunday–you pick). I’m heading out the door to SoCal for a couple different stops with the Marines (1st defense, then prosecution, so should be a lively week), but I managed to get a little reading done during my brief stop at home. Here’s what’s caught my attention since last we spoke:
First, what a lovely day I spent with Vermont nurses today. Really interesting conversation (plus the location, which I tweeted, was awesome). Second, between training Army lawyers earlier in the week and training 2 sets of Marine lawyers next week, can I tell you how nice it was to be in a room full of clinicians? Not that I don’t love me some lawyers, but still…
Medscape has some interesting articles from this past week that are worth a look…
Yesterday I posted about the release of the 2nd edition of the National Protocol. Today I wanted to mention a couple important resources. The first is the upcoming webinar on the Protocol changes that will take place May 21st at 2pm ET. Attendance is free, but registration is a must. The other resources worth mentioning are the short (PDF) and long (PDF) fact sheets on the Protocol changes that give a good overview of what’s new.

Finally. The 2nd edition of the National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Exams, Adolescent/Adult (PDF) from the the US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, is now available.