All this “legitimate rape” conversation has me thinking about access to emergency contraception. I try to make sure we have pretty healthy coverage of the topic here at FHO, since so many of our patients choose to use it post-sexual assault. But in case you’re looking for a national overview on availability, please see the Guttmacher Institute’s State Policies in Brief: Emergency Contraception (PDF). It’s current as of the beginning of this month. And for those of you who’ve never read your own professional organization’s position on access to EC for sexual assault patients, I encourage you to seek it out and review it. You should know what it says (and if your organization doesn’t have one, maybe it’s time to get one written). You can find IAFN’s here (PDF); ACOG’s here; ACEP’s here; and AMA’s here (PDF). If I have left some out, please add them in the Comments.
Category: Sexual Assault
For those of you looking for more information on human trafficking and sexual exploitation, a few items of note:
OJJDP is hosting a webinar on August 22nd: Promising Practices in Combating the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Girls in Gangs. The session will be held from 2-3pm ET.
OVC has a web forum (on the same day and time as the one above): Implementing the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Model. Remember that this is a real-time Q&A session, but it is archived, so you can participate in both if you like.
One other thing: TED has quite a few talks on trafficking and sexual exploitation, by some fascinating speakers. If video is your preferred method for education, this is a good place to look for diverse coverage on this subject.
The Sexual Violence Justice Institute is hosting a webinar on Auguts 27th from 12-1:30 CDT: Multidisciplinary Strategies for Forensic Compliance. The session is limited to 200 so if you’re interested, register ASAP.
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Building Blocks of Prevention
There’s still a lot of confusion about how forensic healthcare professionals can get involved in prevention efforts (we wrote this back in 2006, but I think it’s still relevant). PreventConnect has a new elearning site that includes an introductory session called Building Blocks of Prevention. By the looks of the course outline, this would be a great way to become better acquainted with prevention and help you identify just how prevention fits into your own professional outlook.
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Since Last We Spoke 8-13-12
First off, please let me just say thank you to everyone who commented, emailed and sent cards in response to the news about my mother. The sheer volume of communications I received makes it impossible to thank each one of you individually, so please accept this more expedient (but no less grateful) thanks and know that I am truly moved at how many readers reached out to me.
I’ve been away for what feels like an eternity, so there’s a lot to talk about since last we spoke (including a free full-text journal supplement on youth violence):
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Update to CDC’s STI Guidelines
This felt too critical to wait on: please make sure you review the CDC’s new update to the STI Treatment Guidelines of 2010, specifically on the treatment of gonorrhea. The long and the short of it? Due to resistance issues, we can all stop prescribing/providing oral cephalosporins. It’s back to ceftriaxone IM (if you hadn’t already gone there).
Read the full article here.
At last year’s IAFN Scientific Assembly there was one clear standout, as far as sessions went. So I am thrilled that that same session is now being offered as the next webinar in the IAFN 2012 Webinar Series. Hollye Gallion will be presenting Virginity: Myths, Mystery, Madness on August 9th at 2pm ET. It’s $15 for members ($30 for non-members) and nets you 1 CEU.
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Sexual Violence in Disasters
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center has a new eLearning course available: Sexual Violence in Disasters. As with their other eLearning offerings, these are available at no cost, and can be completed on the user’s timeframe, so it’s a great source for continuing education.
In keeping with yesterday’s post, I was happy to discover that VAWnet announced its newest special collection today (what timing!), Men and Boys: Preventing Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence. And for those of you who feel like, as healthcare providers this is interesting, but not relevant to the work we do in caring for patients, I ask you to at least spend some time with this section of the collection:
Tony Porter is a co-founder of A Call to Men. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing him speak before, and TEDxWomen has hosted him in the past. Along with the video they have a conversation with him posted on their site. Click through to watch the presentation.
I have a guest post today over at the EVAW International blog on keeping SANE/SAFE programs healthy. I hope you’ll go check it out!
It was a pretty difficult news weekend; I tried to force myself to read more than just coverage of the Aurora shootings. As it turns out, there were some pretty insightful pieces written on Aurora, mainly on the need for gun control. I’ve included the best of what I read, along with a few other interesting articles and blog posts since last we spoke (and if nothing else, please read the last piece to which I linked–it’s pure happiness):
NSVRC has a new, free online course, Understanding National Rape Statistics. From the site: This 30 minute interactive course is adapted from the Applied Research Paper, Understanding National Rape Statistics (PDF) by Dean Kilpatrick and Jenna McCauley. Participants will understand how and why rape statistics are generated for national studies; critically evaluate the information provided by national studies on sexual violence; and apply statistics in their work.
My geek heart loves this…
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Since Last We Spoke 7-16-12
I’m in Nashville, TN today for what I anticipate will be some great conversation on issues such as medical testimony and sustainability. Travel always gives me a time to catch up on some reading (I try very hard not to work on planes–this is one self-care activity that I’m pretty good at. Working in airports is another matter altogether.), so here’s a diverse lineup of articles I’ve been perusing since last we spoke:
The immense frustration I feel at this story of one southern governor who feels that anti-violence programs don’t need a line item in the Department of Health’s budget because sexual and domestic violence programs “distract” from the public health mission is difficult to articulate…
Just a reminder that the next IAFN webinar in the 2012 series is coming up July 25th from 2-3:15pm. Child Sexual Abuse Exams: Intepreting Acute and Chronic Physical Findings is going to be presented by one of my favorite peds people, Dr. Marie Marino, current IAFN Board member and Past-President. Cost is $15/member ($30/non-members) and will net you 1 CEU.
I know I’m not alone in saying that this heat wave that so many of us have been experiencing has been pretty brutal. While the oppressive temps seem to be breaking a bit, there hasn’t been much motivation to leave the confines of my air conditioned row house for the past week. Much of the reading I did this weekend was about weather, but there were a few FHO-type news items to draw my attention:
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Endgame
Yesterday, Fresh Air featured the upcoming Frontline documentary, Endgame: AIDS in Black America, which made me realize I needed to remind FHO readers that we have a clinical guide, updated last night, on this issue. Add to this a question on nPEP I received yesterday, along with the newly approved HIV home testing kit, and the timing just seemed right.
The Defense Centers of Excellence have a couple recent podcasts that may be of interest to FHO readers. The first is a podcast on military sexual trauma, which specifically looks at the research in this article. The other is a podcast from the recent webinar, Intimate Partner Violence: What Healthcare Providers Need to Know.
I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done this weekend, since this happened, so I don’t have quite as much to report, Since Last We Spoke: