Yet another item that got buried in the queue of things waiting to get posted: NSVRC has a podcast series available that’s a great resource for those of you working in rural areas. The Just Rural Podcast Series includes 4 interviews with members of different disciplines; transcripts from each of the podcasts are also available.
The twittersphere has been awash with Veto Violence posts, so some of you may be familiar with this site already. If you’re not, you should head on over and spend some quality time trolling through the different sections. It’s a source for online violence education tools, but it’s grounded in prevention. Specifically a public health approach, using a social-ecological model.
There are several things I wanted to bring to your attention this morning:
Medscape has some good stuff this week:
Don’t forget: FHO’s latest giveaway is going on now through August 3rd! Get all the details here to enter.
It’s time once again for Articles Note. These are a selection from peer-reviewed journals that feel particularly relevant to our practice. Remember, it’s in no way a comprehensive or exhaustive list, but it’s an excellent place to start. The majority of the links will take you to PubMed. There are also several free full-text articles in here, so we can all be happy about that. Peds people, you guys have a boat-load of good stuff in here, but trust me when I tell you this–there’s something for everyone in the journals this month.
Don’t forget: FHO’s latest giveaway is going on now through August 3rd! Get all the details here to enter.
AIDS Alliance is hosting a webinar Wednesday, August 3rd from 1-2:30 pm ET: Violence Against Women and HIV. The webinar appears to be free of charge, but registration is required.
Don’t forget: FHO’s latest giveaway is going on now through August 3rd! Get all the details here to enter.
Have you seen the Expert Chat series at NIJ? I stumbled upon the archive, and there’s some really great stuff just waiting for you to find it, too. Not everything is clinically relevant, but the stuff that is is worth perusing.
Don’t forget: FHO’s latest giveaway is going on now through August 3rd! Get all the details here to enter.
Kudos to ACOG for their recommendation to screen patients routinely for sexual assault. You can see the press release here; or read the full recommendation in their journal: Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Committee Opinion No. 499 “Sexual assault” Obstet Gyn 2011; 118(2): 396-399.
Don’t forget: FHO’s latest giveaway is going on now through August 3rd! Get all the details here to enter.
For those of you with an interest in participating in IAFN’s free web-based SAFE training and clinical workshop, please note, the application deadline has been extended to September 1st due to a spectacular response. If you missed the original posting, check out all the course details here.
Some of you may have been following the release of the Institute of Medicine’s report on clinical preventive services for women. This is a big, big deal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their recommendation that women have access to birth control without a co-pay. But did you know their were some violence-related issues addressed in thew new report, as well?
The other day I posted on the Newsweek article about prostitution and human trafficking, and judging by the unbelievable number of hits, FHO readers have some significant interest in the topic. So I wanted to follow up with a resource on providing healthcare for victims of trafficking.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a new policy statement—Protecting Children From Sexual Abuse by Health Care Providers (PDF). Medscape has an overview of the statement, with a CME activity attached (sorry, physicians only). It’s an interesting read, and one that addresses an issue I’ve not seen other organizations address (hello, AMA?).
Providing emergency contraception (EC) is a standard part of the sexual assault medical-forensic exam. However, I find that a lot of clinicians have a difficult time explaining how EC works so that patients can make a well-informed choice about whether they want it. So I was pleased to get an email yesterday announcing the availability of a new fact sheet on EC (PDF), outlining what the science tells us about mechanism of action. It should be a great resource to provide team members and our collaborating colleagues in the emergency departments who are often responsible for having similar conversations with patients.
Can I tell you how long I have been waiting to get to post this? It is with great excitement that I can announce IAFN’s free adolescent/adult web-based SAFE training and clinical workshop (clinical workshop, people! How amazing is that?). Full details after the jump.
Have you seen this site? It’s a really interesting idea from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. It’s been live for awhile now, but I have only just come across it (again, thanks Twitter). What’s fascinating about it is that it is more social media than similar sites. And it’s in French, English and Spanish.
With all the press surrounding the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, it’s hard not to comment. But quite frankly, there’s plenty that’s already been said (and in some cases, said really well), so I’ll leave it at this: in my 16 years of taking care of sexual assault patients, I have yet to meet the victim that could withstand the kind of scrutiny that has been leveled at the victim in this case. The kind of victim who has no embarrassing, or god forbid, illegal, actions in her past (distant or otherwise); who comes forward immediately and is consistent down to the word in her repeated retellings of the events; who only associates with people of unimpeachable character; who is able to catalog everything she drinks prior to the assault, and everyone she talks to before and after; and who has never been assaulted in the past. All that makes us human makes us lousy sexual assault witnesses, each and every one of us.
I have a lot of respected friends and colleagues who care for pediatric abusive head trauma and sexual abuse patients. And I have a lot of respected friends and colleagues who prosecute these cases. So I will be interested in feedback about this particular Frontline program (it debuted last night on PBS) that looks at child fatalities and its central premise that some forensic pathologists are ill-equipped to fully explore cause of death in child cases where abuse is suspected.
In the US, the Department of Health and Human Services provides science-based healthcare objectives for the country in a document called Healthy People. Healthy People 2020 was released at the end of last year, and if you haven’t had a chance to see it (made easier by a pretty decent website), it’s worth looking at. Struggling to get your healthcare agency to continue supporting your program? Trying to explain to a judge or jury why what you do isn’t just evidence collection, but healthcare? Well, Healthy People is a good way to underscore this point–by looking at the Healthy People 2010 outcomes (like this one specific to IPV), and by pointing to what the country’s objectives are in the newest version.
When training lawyers, as I was yesterday, one topic we always discuss is photography and the pros and cons of taking photographs. Particularly genital photographs. I have found both prosecutors and defense counsel have some very specific opinions about this, and I love to have that conversation. But in the course of yesterday’s conversation, I realized that I, too, have some pretty strong opinions on the subject I figured I would share. Now, I am keenly aware that many of my colleagues outside the US have forgone genital photography entirely, but since it’s still commonplace here, and because I review a lot of injury photos as part of my job consulting on cases, I’d like to offer up a list of 10 Things I’d love clinicians to consider when using photography in practice. Mind you, these really are strictly my opinion, so take them for what they are–a jumping off point for further discussion on the topic.
Time once again for this month’s Articles of Note. These are a selection from peer-reviewed journals that feel particularly relevant to our practice. Remember, it’s in no way a comprehensive or exhaustive list, but it’s an excellent place to start. The majority of the links will take you to PubMed. However, I have included one free full-text article, so look out for that one. Articles are from the late May/June/July issues or electronic publications. A printable list is after the jump, followed by the list of live links.
SAFEta Source has another webinar coming up in July. Sexual Abuse Behind Bars: Serving Incarcerated Victims will be held July 28th at 2pm ET. As always, SAFEta webinars are free of charge.