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Category: Sexual Assault
I received an email from a reader asking me to please post information about the financial cost of child abuse in the US. I’m happy to be able to post some relatively recent publications on the topic, the most specific being Prevent Child Abuse America’s 2007 report, Total Estimated Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States: An Economic Impact Study (PDF). (UPDATE: Click through for more current resources)
SAAM Day of Action & Giveaway
April 20th is Sexual Assault Awareness Month’s Day of Action. This year’s theme is preventing sexual violence on our campuses. Hopefully you have thought about how you would like to commemorate this day, but if you haven’t, NSVRC has some fantastic suggestions for you. Although it’s just under a month away, there’s still time to make this day impactful. I would really love to see clinicians participating in some way, because prevention is a critical part of our role.
MNCASA‘s Sexual Violence Justice Institute is hosting the last of a 4-part series on the SART Protocol Development Cycle, Monday April 26th at 12pm CT: Monitoring Progress and Evaluating Success for SARTs and Other Multidisciplinary Teams Responding to Sexual Violence. Participation is free, but preregistration is required.
Stalking and Sexual Assault
The Stalking Resource Center will be hosting a free webinar on stalking and sexual assault April 9th at 2pm ET. Be forewarned, this offering will be capped at 100 people, so if you’re interested in attending, register ASAP. “Research indicates that there is a connection between stalking and sexual assault -both pre- and post-assault…
I am very honored to be the consultant on some exciting research being conducted by Dr. Rebecca Campbell and colleagues at Michigan State University. If you are interested in participating in a project that will assist you in evaluating the efficacy of your program on criminal justice outcomes, please read more about how to apply, after the jump:
I cannot believe it’s already mid-March and I am *just* getting to this post. Between CCAW in Dallas (fantastic and more than 700 attendees) and a court martial that had me sequestered without internet, last week was a wash in terms of getting much done. Finally, though, it’s time for March’s Articles of Note. All of these are from the late February/March/April issues and electronic previews. 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.
Victim Centered Care
March 30th at 2pm ET SAFEta Source will be hosting a webinar on victim-centered care. Co-presented by Kim Day (IAFN) and Laura Williams (MNCASA), this webinar will offer education and practical solutions to clinicians, advocates, and law enforcement professionals on the sometimes clashing ideas of what victim centered care looks like. At the end of the event, attendees will:
- Have an increased understanding of what ‘victim centered’ care is;
- Understand the impact that victim centered care can have on design, implementation and evaluation of local protocol responses to sexual assault.
- Be able to maximize ways to ensure that your team is victim centered
Fighting Sex Slavery
I’m on my way to Dallas for the Conference on Crimes Against Women, but before I go, I wanted to post a very powerful TED presentation by Sunitha Krishnan on fighting sex slavery. It’s tough to watch some portions, but it’s powerful and under 15 minutes. She talks bluntly about the realities of trafficking, but also has some important prevention messages, as well.
Last week, the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law held hearings on child prostitution and sex trafficking in the US. Among the speakers was Rachel Lloyd from GEMS, Anita Alvarez, the elected state’s attorney from Cook County, IL (the 2nd largest prosecutor’s office in the country, FYI), and Senator Ron Widen (OR).
Don’t forget: you have until Wednesday, March 3rd to enter our newest giveaway. Just leave your response to the question in the Comment section to be eligible.
I’m back from vacation and we have a full week of posts to get to (they’ve been stacking up in my mailbox while I’ve been on the road). Let’s start the week with EVAW‘s Forensic Compliance Self-Assessment (DOC). They’ve made this tool available on their website, and if you’re interested in looking at your own program’s compliance, this is a great place to start.
Dating Matters
Don’t forget: you have until Wednesday, March 3rd to enter our newest giveaway. Just leave your response to the question in the Comment section to be eligible.
The CDC and Liz Claiborne Inc. have launched Dating Matters: Helping Teens Build Healthy Relationships. This free course focuses on helping educators, youth leaders, and others working with teens to understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence, as well as the importance of promoting healthy relationships.
NCVC is hosting a free webinar on SANEs and victim sensitive evidence collection, March 2nd from 1-2 pm ET. “This webinar aims to increase understanding about the role Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) play in the proper collection of forensic evidence and in providing a supportive and empowering response to survivors. Participants will learn about how SANEs increase the probability of obtaining probative DNA evidence while minimizing trauma for survivors and how the involvement of SANEs increase prosecution rates.
It looks like IAFN just made 12 sessions available from the ATL Annual Scientific Assembly as webcasts. The audio plus PowerPoint can be reviewed for CEUs, and if you attended the Assembly, it’s free. Not to worry–if you couldn’t make it, it’s still available to you for $19.99 if you’re an IAFN member ($29.99, non-members). Sessions are 90 minutes a piece, so that’s a pretty good deal, CEU-wise.
NCPTC Webinars
The National Child Protection Training Center has a slate of webinars coming up that might be of interest. Usually I wait to post individual sessions as they get closer on the calendar, but a couple of the NCPTC webinars have filled already so best not to wait. Several of the sessions are heavy on the legal, but with topics like Hearsay and Suggestibility, there’s certainly some clinical overlap.
In my continuing quest to provide better access to free CME/CEUs for FHO readers, I decided to trawl through Medscape tonight and round up 20 offerings that can be completed quickly and easily. A couple caveats, though: 1.) not all of them are for RNs–physician and midlevel only CEs are marked accordingly; 2.) these things expire, and some more quickly than others [a few of them have about a 45 day shelf life], so check the dates to make sure you’ll get the credit you’ve earned; 3.) not all of these will be relevant to everyone’s practice–I’ve listed a pretty broad cross-section of topics that touch forensic practice in one capacity or another; and 4.) a few of these will look familiar as I’ve posted them on FHO before–apologies to the daily readers. Remember, Medscape requires registration to access these activities–it’s free, no worries.
A few really interesting posts over at the sustainability site this week. Both gave me some things to seriously consider:
- *Managing up, or the art of positioning people to effect positive change
- *What do we teach the future nurse?
Time once again for a run down of some of the new and noteworthy articles in the current literature (something I almost forgot to do this month!). All of these are from the late January/February/March issues and electronic previews. 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.
There’s some good stuff over at the Sustainability site this week. I hope you’ll check it out:
- *A new blog in town! NSVRC has added the Engaged Bystander blog.
- Now the Sustainability blog has a friend:)
- *An article that had me alternately laughing and a little embarrassed:
- 6 words non-profits should avoid (for all you grant writing and
- marketing types out there).
I’m headed to DC this weekend where they’re apparently expecting wicked snow. Say a prayer to the travel gods for me, if you get the chance. Have a great weekend everyone (go Saints)!
Emergency Contraception News

I’m hanging out in the Detroit airport hoping my late night flight home won’t get cancelled with all the snow falling out there. So I have just enough time to post some pretty interesting news from the EC front. Seems like there’s a new option on the horizon…