I don’t know how many of you read the Sunday NY Times, but this past weekend the Magazine ran a special series: Saving the World’s Women. There were a few articles that were particularly interesting, including The Women’s Crusade and an interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Not surprisingly, trafficking and gender-based violence were discussed repeatedly.
It’s been an insanely busy week, but a really good one. And there’s some great stuff over at the sustainability site this week. Aside from an evaluation webinar happening today over at OVC (I hope I’ll be able to share archived materials soon), you’ll also find:
It’s going to definitely be a working weekend for me, but hopefully not for my friend Tara, who just passed her FNP boards. Considering she was sweating the exam in Oregon last week, allow me to be the first to say, “I told you so!” (oh, yeah, and congratulations…). Enjoy the fishing, Tara–you earned it.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
CROWD has a really terrific powerpoint on gynecological consideration in treating women with physical disabilities. I post it here because it’s a great overview of some of the exam techniques that can be useful (a consideration for those of us completing SAFE exams); challenges in identifying STIs and other GYN issues in this population; and potential red flags for physical and sexual abuse. The slides are accompanied by detailed notes, making the whole thing a great educational tool.
OVC has another free web forum coming up August 26th from 2-3pm ET: Responding to Homeless Victims of Sexual Assault. No registration is required. Jessy Haywood, community educator and trainer at the Center for Women and Families, and Katya Fels Smyth, founder of the Full Frame Initiative and On the Rise, Inc., will be facilitating the discussion. To find out how to participate in this session, you can check out the directions here.
Just a head’s up: I’m facilitating one of these at the end of September on program sustainability. I’ll post more on it when I have the official details.
It’s been a terrific week out here in the mountains, but it’s just about time to go home (and then turn right back around and head to Oregon). I confess, I tried to get a new clinical guide up this week, but the mountains beckoned and it didn’t happen. Next week, I promise. In the meantime, check out what’s happening over at the sustainability site:
It’s my last day here, so I’m going to enjoy one last trail run. Have a great weekend everyone! See you back here next week from the Pacific Northwest.
Medscape has a new slideshow available: Recognizing Child Abuse. It’s free to access (registration is required, also free) and would make another fantastic continuing education presentation for your team. The slideshow includes multiple annotated injury photos, films and recent stats, but it’s still brief enough to review during a staff meeting or inservice (there are 25 slides total). Child sexual abuse is also addressed, albeit briefly.
It’s certainly not the most comprehensive presentation on the topic, but it’s a nice overview. I’ll look forward to hearing your opinions…
Friend of FHO, Diana Faugno, will be the featured speaker for the next Family Justice Alliance webinar, August 13th at 9am Pacific: Injury & Terminology 101 in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Participation is free, but pre-registration is suggested. This is a great opportunity to provide continuing education for your team, or help bring your newbies up to speed, so I would get yourselves registered ASAP. The good news is that they archive all of their webinars, so if the date doesn’t work for you, you’ll still be able to access the information. But experiencing it live means you get to ask questions…I’m just saying.
UPDATE: you can find a PDF of the presentation here; video here.
Yesterday, I received an email from a reader looking for materials on teen dating violence. There are several sites addressing this issue right now. One is That’s Not Cool, which does a great job speaking directly to teens about stalking, harassment and violence. There’s also Break the Cycle, which has a boatload of free resources that would be great to have on hand as patient handouts (in English and Spanish), including safety planning workbooks for teens and for college students (PDF). They also publish a report on state laws each year–you can see how your state measures up here (OH gets an F) or download the full report (PDF).
Time once again for a run down of some of the new and noteworthy articles in the current literature. All of these are from the July/August/September issues. 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. All 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 been a lot of activity over at the Sustainability site this week, in large part due to the release of our 1st project bulletin, Sustainability 101: Long Range Thinking for Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program Managers. Thanks to everyone who’s sent me lovely comments about the report. Stay tuned, because our 2nd one, on writing business plans for SANE programs, will be released in a few weeks. Other happenings this week:
Next week, I’ll have some good stuff for you: our monthly Articles of Note, where we look at what’s recently published in the peer-reviewed literature; and a new clinical guide on, well, I’m not giving it away just yet. Let’s say for those of you doing DV/IPV clinical work in particular, this one should pique your interest.
I’m happy to report I’m heading to Colorado tomorrow for a week of decompression. I’ll still be working, of course (although I’m taking a couple days off), but I will be at altitude, surrounded by mountains in the high country, which chills me out like nothing else can. Hope you’ll be finding a similar source of serenity yourselves–MW, I’m talking to you, my friend.
Enjoy your weekend!
I know this is a site dedicated to online education and resources, but I just want to take a minute to point out a few talks I’m giving at some of the upcoming fall conferences that might be of interest. The biggie for me is the IAFN Annual Scientific Assembly, October 21-24 in Atlanta. I’m doing 2 sessions there: Using Today’s Technologies to Deliver Clinical Education: A Guide for Technophobes will be on Friday, October 23rd. That session will examine the variety of opportunities to participate in and create clinical education and should be a great opportunity to hear from participants about what’s being done around the world. And the one I’m even more excited about, the full-day leadership workshop (technically called NSVRC Leadership, though I’m not sure why), is on October 24th.
The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape has a tutorial available for download on screening for sexual violence in the healthcare setting. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and probably one we don’t talk about enough. You can download both the implementation guide (PDF) and the contents of the CD-ROM on which the tutorial was originally produced (warning: big file in zip form), free of charge. In addition to the tutorial, there’s a related publication, Put Down the Chart, Pick up the Questions (PDF), which also focuses on screening for sexual violence in the healthcare setting (I saw a similar tool in Illinois from their state health department).
What an incredible week we’ve had at both sites. So much traffic, I am frankly a bit stunned. If you haven’t been over to the sustainability site, here’s what you’ll find this week
And of course, don’t forget, we’re having our 1st giveaway on this site. Just leave me a comment here about why you do this work and Monday I’ll choose the winner of the Forensic Nursing Scope & Standards, hot off the press. If you’re training forensic nurses as part of your job, this is a seriously invaluable tool, folks.
On July 22nd, from 2-3pm ET, OVC will be hosting a web forum on addressing sexual violence against individuals with disabilities. If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know how the web forums work; if you’re a new reader (welcome!), you can read about how to participate here. Heather Kamper from Austin, TX will be facilitating the session. Participation is free and no registration is required.
For previous web forums, visit their archives list on the main page.
If you weren’t one of almost 300 people who attended the HIV nPEP webinar described here, have no fear: the spectacular Kim Day has made sure you can still check it out at your leisure. You can access the archived offering over at the SAFE TA site. Thanks for making that happen, Kim!
Everything can be looked at in economic terms, including violence. It’s important info to have at your disposal, because it can strengthen a grant proposal or negotiations with your healthcare system for an FTE or program. Enough’s been written on the subject that I figured it would be good to review the literature. I’ve chosen to focus mainly on the costs of violence against women. [UPDATE: You can find financial cost of child abuse here.] Unless otherwise indicated, everything listed is full text (if it wasn’t available free online, you’ll have a link to free abstracts). I’m organizing these by pub date, with most recent at the beginning:
2012
Overview of Studies on the Costs of Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (PDF) (Council of Europe, Gender Equality and Violence Against Women Division, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law)
An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Spousal Violence in Canada, 2009 (PDF) (Department of Justice Canada)
Cost of Injury Reports Application from the CDC has been updated. Using the WISQARS database, the applications allows you to “find cost of injury estimates for fatal or nonfatal injuries classified either by intent and mechanism or by body region and nature of injury”. From the site:
Important Updates: In addition to allowing user-provided data to be integrated into the cost estimation process, this new version of Cost of Injury Reports incorporates three basic changes, effective 04/25/2012:
Updated unit (per person) work loss cost estimates: These updated unit work loss cost estimates affect total and average work loss cost estimates for both fatal and nonfatal injuries. For further details regarding this update, click here.
Corrected unit medical cost estimates: These corrected unit medical cost estimates affect total and average medical cost estimates for nonfatal emergency department treated-and-released injuries. Cost estimates for fatal injuries and for nonfatal hospitalized injuries are not affected by this correction. For further details regarding this update, click here.
Average costs: For reports involving injury deaths classified by body region and/or nature of injury, average costs are now expressed per person (similar to the averages for all other types of injury outcomes and classification schemes). Such averages were previously expressed in terms of apportioned cases. For further details regarding this update, click here.
Violence Containment Spending in the United States (FULL TEXT)
Institute for Economics and Peace
The Economic Costs of Partner Violence and the Cost-Benefit of Civil Protection Orders.
Logan, T.K., Walker, R., and Hoyt, W. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2012 Apr;27(6): 1137-54
2011
Costs and Consequences of Sexual Violence and Cost-Effective Solutions
National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
Social and economic costs of violence–workshop summary
Deepali M. Patel and Rachel M. Taylor, Rapporteurs; Forum on Global Violence Prevention; Institute of Medicine
Varcoe, C., et al. (Canadian study)
2010
The healthcare costs of domestic and sexual violence (fact sheet).
Futures Without Violence, updated March 2010
Changes in health care costs over time following the cessation of intimate partner violence.
Fishman PA, Bonomi AE, Anderson ML, Reid RJ, Rivara FP.
J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Sep;25(9):920-5. Epub 2010 Apr 23.
A review of cost measures for the economic impact of domestic violence.
Chan KL, Cho EY.
Trauma Violence Abuse. 2010 Jul;11(3):129-43.
2009
Health care utilization and costs associated with physical
and nonphysical-only intimate partner violence.
Bonomi AE, Anderson ML, Rivara FP, Thompson RS. Health Serv Res. 2009 Jun;44(3):1052-67. Epub 2009 Mar 17.
Hidden Costs in Health Care: The Economic Impact of Violence and Abuse
Dolezal, T.et al. Academy on Violence & Abuse
Intimate Partner Violence: High Costs to Households and Communities
International Center for Research on Women
See also: Bonomi & Corso’s presentation at AVA, 2009
2008
Methods for estimating medical expenditures attributable to intimate partner violence.
Brown DS, et al.
J Interpers Violence. 2008 Dec;23(12):1747-66
2007
Cost of Sexual Violence in Minnesota
Minnesota Department of Health
The Effects and Costs of Intimate Partner Violence for Work Organizations
Reeves, C. & O’Leary-Kelly, A.M.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 22, No. 3, 327-344
The effect of intimate partner violence on health care costs and utilization for children living in the home. (FULL TEXT)
Rivara FP, Anderson ML, Fishman P, Bonomi AE et al.
Pediatrics 2007;120(6):1270-7.
Phaedra S. Corso, et al.
Am J Prev Med 2007;32(6)
2006
Browne-Miller, A., Transforming Communities: Technical Assistance, Training and Resource Center (TC-TAT)
The welfare cost of violence across countries
Soares, R.R.
Journal of Health Economics, 25(5), September 2006, Pages 821-846
Long-term costs of intimate partner violence in a sample of female HMO enrollees.
Jones AS, et al.
Womens Health Issues. 2006 Sep-Oct;16(5):252-61.
2005
A Considerable Sacrifice: The Costs of Sexual Violence in the U. S. Armed Forces
Hansen, C. The Miles Foundation
The costs of interpersonal violence—an international review
Waters, H.R., et al.
Health Policy, 73(3) 8 September 2005, pp 303-315
Gender-Based Violence: A Price Too High
From: UNFPA State of World Population 2005
United Nations Population Fund
2004
The Economic Dimensions of Interpersonal Violence
Waters, H., et al., World Health Organization
The economic toll of intimate partner violence against women in the United States.
Max, W. et al.
Violence Vict. 2004 Jun;19(3):259-72.
2002
Economic Costs of Domestic Violence
Laing, L. & Bobic, N., Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse, University of New South Wales
The Rape Tax: Tangible and Intangible Costs of Sexual Violence
Post, L.A., et al.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 17, No. 7, 773-782 (2002)
1999
Intimate partner violence against women: do victims cost health plans more?
Wisner, C.L., et al.
J Fam Pract. 1999 Jun;48(6):439-43
Costs of health care use by women HMO members with a history of childhood abuse and neglect.
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999 Jul;56(7):609-13.
Walker EA, Unutzer J, Rutter C, Gelfand A, Saunders K,
VonKorff M, Koss MP, Katon W.
PUB DATE UNKNOWN
The Cost of Violence/Stress at Work and the Benefits of a Violence/Stress-Free Work Environment
Hoel, H., et al. International Labour Organization
BONUS TOOL (I can’t speak to validity or reliability, but it’s a cool concept)
Two new online courses have been announced at IAFN: SANE Dialogues: Focus Group on the Use of nPEP in SANE Programs and Patterns of Injury in Non-Accidental Childhood Fatalities. They’re free for members; non-members pay $10 each. It would appear that there are CEUs attached, but I could not find any specifics related to how many for either course. If you’re a Firefox user, be forewarned: you may not be able to complete the posttest to get credit for the course, so Internet Explorer is really the only way to access this content (which frankly sucks for Mac users like me).
I’m pleased to welcome Jennifer Pierce Weeks to Forensic Healthcare Online. As a clinician, administrator, national trainer and President of IAFN, she is another one of those folks who spends a lot of time talking with people in the field, and has a great perspective on healthcare-focused, patient-centered, sustainable programming.
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the issue of quality in SANE/SAFE education. There are no mandated qualifications for who provides the education, so caveat emptor is the rule of the day. IAFN does not police training, but provides education guidelines that describe the minimum body of knowledge all SANEs/SAFEs should possess (there are also training standards for sexual assault forensic examiners (PDF) around the National Protocol). Needless to say, some of the education out there is definitely better than others.
Time once again for a run down of some of the new and noteworthy articles in the current literature. Most of these are from the June/July/August issues. 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 (except for one, which goes to Ingenta); 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.
Just a warning: it’s a lengthy list this month. There’s all kinds of good stuff being published right now…
I’m back from the desert and looking forward to a long weekend. I’m going to take part of the day off, so just an abbreviated warp-up (wow, now that’s a typo!) wrap-up today. Because I was gone all week, only a couple things on the sustainability site:
Have a safe and happy 4th for all of my American readers (and for my Canadian readers, a belated happy Canada Day!). I’ll be back Monday with new content, the July edition of Articles of Note, and a big announcement!