[Warning: flight of ideas is about to ensue…]
Tuesday night Joy Behar interviewed Robin Givens, Denise Brown, Erin Gray and Victor Rivers about domestic violence on Larry King Live. I was happy to hear Victor talk about the importance of engaging men in DV prevention and the dangers of bystander behavior, and it reminded me of the documentary in which he had been featured many years ago, Breaking the Silence: Journeys of Hope (PBS).
On the Diane Rehm Show yesterday, Diane interviewed the authors of the new book Picking Cotton, about the circumstances that led to the writing of the book:
A rape victim mistakenly accused Ronald Cotton of being her attacker. He served eleven years in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him. They both join Diane [Rehm] to present their joint memoir of injustice and forgiveness.
Brown Medical School, along with several other organizations, put together an online tutorial for emergency healthcare providers on human trafficking. I’m unsure when the tutorial was created (if someone knows, please pass that along), but it appears to be no older than 2005 based on the materials cited, so info is relatively current. Much of it is text-based, but it is well-linked in many places.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, has a free PTSD101 program for healthcare professionals. The courses contained in the program (and there are many), are divided into 6 different categories and include topics such as vicarious traumatization, PTSD and sexual assault, combat stress injuries, and cultural dimensions of PTSD. The list is pretty extensive. Best of all? CEs available for everyone.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has released their report, Shattered Lives: Immediate Medical Care Vital for Sexual Violence Victims. “Based on MSF’s work in Liberia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Africa, Colombia, and other countries, the report, titled “Shattered Lives,” highlights the need for emergency medical care to be made available to people who have been raped. MSF also stresses that such services need to be truly accessible, with guarantees for confidentiality and an offer of comprehensive care.”
You can read an overview of the report here, or download the full report (PDF).
The Child Trauma Academy in Houston, TX is now accepting registrations for their Spring Clinical Teaching Series. The series offers 10 online sessions on a variety of topics related to working with high-risk children using the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. All courses take place on Fridays from 11:30-1pm, Central Time.
Lewis and Clark Law School (NCVLI), has an archived podcast (from Jan 2007) on working with victims of stalking. Although it is geared toward advocates, it looks specifically at safety planning and threat assessments, both of which can be useful skills for forensic healthcare professionals, as well. The speaker, Sandy Bromley, from the National Center for Victims of Crime, provides a national overview of, as well as Oregon-specific information about, the issue.
Have you seen Very Young Girls on Showtime? If you haven’t it’s still possible to see it On Demand through March 3rd and it’s well worth your time. We don’t often think about trafficking victims as being young American teens and pre-teens, but as this documentary clearly shows, the problem is rampant right here in the US.
Prevention Connection, a project of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has just opened registration for its next webinar, Building the Violence Against Women Primary Prevention Movement. Two sessions are being held March 10th and March 12th, 11AM Pacific Standard Time. Content will be the same for both, but speakers may differ.
My friend Cathy, over at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, sent me a video she made for the Bandana Project. If you aren’t familiar with the Bandana Project it’s a a public awareness campaign aimed at addressing the issue of workplace sexual violence against migrant farmworker women in the United States. Esperanza: The Immigrant Women’s Legal Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center launched this campaign in 2007.
You can view the short video after the jump.
In my inbox today:
… a special webinar on Monday, February 23 (3-4:30pm ET) featuring Stop It Now! and Darkness to Light – two national organizations leading the effort to prevent the sexual abuse of children. This online exchange will help you learn from our experiences by presenting research informed practice and real life successes.
Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, discusses social and economic vulnerability in women around the world in this podcast on HIV and sexual violence. “The stark lack of empowerment of women in many parts of the world indicates the need for men to help protect their gender counterparts from the scourge of HIV.” The Spread of HIV Through Sexual Violence Against Women, is approximately 13 minutes and can be accessed free of charge.
Like all ReachMD programming, it requires site registration, which can be done here.
Spending the night at the hospital seeing patients gives me a lot of time to think, and plenty of time to surf. In the course of putting some information together for a teaching project, I stumbled across a little hidden gem on the CDC website: STI Picture Cards. I know I often get requests from people looking for photos to use for teaching purposes; here the CDC provides 19 images meant for use by educators. For those of you teaching this content as part of a SANE course, here’s a way to integrate some new images into your slide presentations. Or use them as a tool for some staff continuing education.
The National Judicial Education Program, part of Legal Momentum, has an online course for judges: “Intimate Partner Sexual Abuse: Adjudicating This Hidden Dimension of Domestic Violence Cases”. Although it is clearly geared toward legal professionals, it has some great information that would be beneficial to several different disciplines. According to the website, the course provides current interdisciplinary research from law, medicine and the social sciences that is applicable to judicial decision-making and case management. The site can be treated as a course or as a resource to be consulted as needed.
The University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery’s Center for Injury Research and Control has a series of Grand Rounds in webinar format archived on their site. One of the grand rounds from last November is Dr. Cari Casteel’s presentation: National Study of Physical and Sexual Assault of Women with Disabilities.
VAWNet, one of the great sources for information on violence against women, has just published their collection of online learning tools. There is a wealth of offerings here, ranging from videos to podcasts to slide presentations. The vast majority are not specific to healthcare, but there’s great multidisciplinary information here on a spectrum of issues related to trafficking and sexual and intimate partner violence (including several I have already featured or are in my queu). If you aren’t already acquianted with the site, this is the perfect opportunity.
The Spectrum of Prevention is a tool developed by the Prevention Institute to help develop strategies to prevent violence against women. It has been featured frequently as a way to mobilize communities to develop solutions to prevent sexual violence, as well as a tool for educating individuals and communities about engaging in the prevention process.
Just a reminder to those of you wanting to participate in the webinar on domestic violence and sexual assault in tribal communities January 22nd. You can read the full posting here for registration and participation details.
On January 22nd the Family Justice Center Alliance presents a webinar on domestic violence and sexual assault in tribal communities. The session will feature Leslie Hagen, Senior Counsel for SMART, Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (If you haven’t had the pleasure of working with or learning from Ms. Hagan, I cannot recommend her highly enough.) The webinar begins at 9AM Pacific Time and will last one hour. Registration is required and space is limited–click here to register. Participation requires both a phone line and internet connection–instructions for joining in will be provided once registration is completed.
UPDATE: You can access a PDF of the presentation here; video here.
For those of you who have not yet heard, the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Virtual Practicum is available from IAFN. The DVD itself is only $25; if you would like to purchase CEUs for it, as well (12.5 awarded at completion), the cost is $90 (price includes DVD). Because more than one user is able to complete the practicum on a single DVD, members of IAFN can buy CEUs alone; however they must contact the IAFN home office to do so (410-626-7805). CMEs are also available for physicians (12) through Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for an additional $60.
For those of you who teach sexual assault content, such as SANE-SART courses, this is also an excellent tool for supplementing lectures and adding additional content (such as survivors’ voices) into the offering.