The CDC has published a new guide, Training Professionals in the Primary Prevention of Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence: a Planning Guide (PDF). The guide includes a section on training healthcare providers, and it’s full of useful tools and resources.
Category: Sexual Assault
UNIFEM has created the Virtual Knowledge Center to End Violence Against Women and Girls that is certainly worth perusing. From the looks of the site, there are still multiple modules yet to come (including one on health and another on justice), but to date there are several live modules, and it’s beautifully searchable.
As part of the process of writing a book chapter on injuries obtained during consensual sexual intercourse, I put together a grid of the research that looks at this issue. I figured I’d go ahead and post it after some lengthy conversation today during a 2 hour Q&A session with Army defense counsel. Understanding what the research does (and doesn’t say) about this topic is incredibly useful, although, to be clear, the research is still somewhat limited.
MNCASA’s Sexual Violence Justice Institute is hosting a webinar September 27th, from 12-1:30 CT– Victim-Centered: We’ve Heard the Term, But What Does It Mean? This is the 3rd part of their series, Beyond Protocols: How SARTs Can Influence the Justice-Making Process for Sexual Assault Victims/Survivors. You can register for the session here.
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Rape in the US
There’s been a lot of chatter about the Senate Subcommittee hearing being held today, Rape in the United States: The Chronic Failure to Report and Investigate Rape Cases. It’s being webcast live (as I type this, actually), and I’m assuming you’ll be able to view it after the fact on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s website. (UPDATE: It is available, just click the link on the right hand side of their page)
I’m running off to Maxwell AFB, and then back to DC for the week, but before I go, time once again for this month’s edition of Articles of Note. All of these are from the August/September/October issues and electronic previews. Please note, we have one full-text article available this month, and a link to an entire journal, which is new. Trust me, you’ll want to check it out if your interests veer toward elder abuse. As always, please keep in mind this in no way a comprehensive list; simply items that have caught my attention from a selection of peer-reviewed journals. Most links lead to PubMed abstracts; from there you can choose what’s worth a.) paying for; b.) a pilgrimage to your nearest medical library; or c.) downloading via the full-text access you possibly have at your disposal.
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False Allegations
In my professional travels, one topic that frequently arises is that of false allegations of sexual assault. There is a widespread, but incorrect belief that this is common, and that women in particular, will frequently lie about sexual assault as a response to, say, “regretted” sex or infidelity.
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Suggestability
First off, a thank you to everyone on the testimony webinar yesterday. What a fantastic turnout! And some really great questions, as well.
Over at NCPTC, they have a webinar next week on suggestability. It will take place September 16th at 3pm CT, and cost is $10. I’m not a peds person, but I looked at the slides (PDF), and I have to confess, I found the research and the discussion in them pretty fascinating.
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Odds and Ends Tuesday
I have several things piling up in my odds and ends file, so I thought I’d take the time to put a few of them out there. Today’s a bit of a disjointed day as I try to play catch up from the month of August, so while I was hoping to get a September Articles of Note up, I’m afraid that will have to wait until later in the week. However, stay tuned, because we also have a new giveaway coming up soon from our friends at GW Medical.
IAFN‘s 4th webinar of the year will take place September 21st from 2-3pm ET: Sexual Assault Examinations in Deceased Patients. The always fantastic Tara Henry will be teaching this one, so I highly recommend registering. Cost of the session is $40 for members ($50 for non-members, and really, are you still not a member?), which will net you 1 nursing CEU.
Lots of SART webinars happening right now. Next up: MNCASA’s Sexual Violence Justice Institute and their offering on how SARTs discuss sexual assault cases. The session will take place Wednesday, September 8th from 12-1:30pm CT. Registration is free.
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Weekly Wrap-Up & NSAC
Next week the National Sexual Assault Conference will be going on in Los Angeles. Sadly, I won’t be there this time (I’ll be with the Navy in Newport), but I’ll be able to catch up on all of the fantastic things happening there, because CALCASA’s going to be tweeting updates in real time (as will many others), and also blogging from the conference.
WCSAP is hosting a webinar Monday, August 30th at 11am PT: Immigration, Sexual Assault and the Current Legal Climate. Space is limited for this one, so register ASAP if you’re interested. The featured speaker is Sonia Parras Konrad from ASISTA, a national organization providing immigration technical assistance on representing survivors of crimes of violence.
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Weekly Wrap-Up
It’s been an amazing week here in DC, as we have just finished up the inaugural offering of our National Institute for the Prosecution of Domestic Violence II, which took our first DV course to an entirely new level. But that has left all of us exhausted and slightly bewildered: we’ll be starting over again next week with a sexual violence institute for the Army and Air Force. Happily, I was able to (mostly) able to keep up with postings for the week:
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SART Case Review
Just a reminder: there is a complimentary session from SAFEta Source: SART Case Review. The session will be held next Tuesday, August 24th at 2pm ET. From the site: Presented by Linda Ledray, PhD, RN, FAAN, SANE-A, this webinar will offer education and practical solutions to Sexual Assault Response Teams that are looking for resources to create a case review process. For SART teams that are “seasoned” at the process, this webinar will provide an opportunity to enhance practices. You can still register for the webinar here.
RTI, in collaboration with the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center is offering a web-based course: An Overview of DFSA SANE/SAFE/SART Protocol 1 (which means, presumably, there will be at least one more?). The live web course is being offered on 4 different occasions over the next 2 months: 8/18 (sorry–just got this) 3-5 pm ET; 8/24, 8:30-10:30 am ET; 9/1, 8:30-10:30 ET; and 9/2, 3-5 pm ET. 2 CEUs will be available for nurses (for a fee of $30), although the target audience is multidisciplinary. Dr. Pat Speck and Dr. Jeri Ropero-Miller will be the presenters.
Time once again for Articles of Note. All of these are from the July/August issues and electronic previews. It’s a bit brief this month, but there’s some good stuff, particularly on DFSA. As always, please keep in mind this in no way a comprehensive list; simply items that have caught my attention from a selection of peer-reviewed journals. Links lead to PubMed abstracts; from there you can choose what’s worth a.) paying for; b.) a pilgrimage to your nearest medical library; or c.) downloading via the full-text access you possibly have at your disposal.
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How SARTs Discuss Cases
The Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force is hosting a SART-focused webinar: What Can We Talk About? Considerations for How SART Teams Discuss Sexual Assault Cases. The webinar will be August 17th from 11am-noon, PT. The session will be presented by Laura Williams, MPA, National Technical Assistance Project Director, Sexual Violence Justice Institute (SVJI), Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, St. Paul, MN. Advanced registration is required.
In the course of my work, I was asked by a physician from South America for information about lack of genital injury in sexual assault patients. Based on the work I did for him, I ended up with a fairly lengthy bibliography, which I have subsequently turned into the newest clinical guide on sexual assault anogenital injury. It’s not exhaustive (particularly the peds section, which isn’t my area of specialization), but it’s pretty comprehensive. Of course, if I’ve forgotten anything, please shoot me a note so I can add it to the bibliography.
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Request for Assistance
A request from Terry Cintron:
In partial fulfillment of the requirement for a Masters of Science in Nursing Administration and Education through Mountain State University I am currently conducting a content analysis. The content analysis will examine questions on sexual assault interview forms which are used throughout the United States. The primary focus of the analysis will be to assess forms for questions associated with previous sexual assault, domestic violence and childhood sexual assault or abuse. Forms will be compared for question revision and updated information.
In providing the sexual assault interview form the response will remain confidential; no individual, hospital, organization, city or state will be identified. A number will be assigned to each form as a code only for the purpose of indentifying the form. The information generated from the content analysis will assist in the development of future interview forms for victims of sexual assault.
If it is feasible to provide the form please contact me at the email address listed and I will provide either a confidential fax number or my mail address.
If you should have any questions please contact me at the email address provided. Email address: cintrona@shaw.ca. Thank you for your time and consideration.