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Articles of Note Child Abuse DV/IPV Elder Abuse/Neglect Sexual Assault

Articles of Note: August 2014 Edition

Time once again for Articles of Note, my list of the things that have caught my attention in the latest round of peer-reviewed journals. This month has quite a lot to explore, but as always, this list isn’t comprehensive (and it’s subject to my specific interests). The majority of links take you to the PubMed abstract, except where indicated. Click through for the PDF and active links; contact me for the list as a Word doc.

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 8-25-14

Hey, Toronto readers: I’m coming to your fair city for a wee bit of relaxation this weekend. You all know how much I love a good meal, so feel free to send your food suggestions my way. We’ll be there for the (US) holiday weekend, so I’ve basically got 3 days on the ground. I’m fortunate enough to get to eat a lot of terrific meals all over the world; the goal for this weekend is less emphasis on fancy, more emphasis on seriously authentic ethnic foods of all stripes. Toronto is such a cool, diverse city, we’re hoping to basically just graze our way through the weekend.

Now that we’ve taken care of the important stuff I can tell you that this past weekend was a bust. Really the best thing I can say about it was that I now no longer have staples in my head, so there’s the silver lining. I had plenty of time to read, though; here’s what caught my eye since last we spoke:

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Adolescent Consent and Privacy Issues

I was just having a discussion this week about the issue of consent with teens, so the timing of this is perfect: one of the Tribal Forensic Healthcare project’s September webinars is Adolescent Consent and Privacy Issues. The session will be held September 16th from 3-4:30pm ET. As with all of their webinars, CEs are available and free. Click through for all of the details.

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Worthwhile Read: Till Death Do Us Part (Trigger Warning)

Ironically, I am in South Carolina today, teaching at a course focusing in part on investigating and prosecuting domestic violence. I tell you this because the Charleston, SC Post and Courier has just published an expose on domestic violence in the state, Till Death Do Us Part. The series, a result of an 8-month investigation, specifically looks at how the state is failing victims (the murder rate for women in South Carolina is twice that of the nation), examining issues related to patriarchy, access to guns, religion, legislation and more. Even if you don’t live in South Carolina, it’s a worthwhile and powerful read; the online site includes videos featuring survivors and their families, timelines, and more. Take some time out for this one.

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 8-18-14

Thank you to everyone who left me comments and sent emails with well wishes. I definitely took advantage of the time off and spent some quality time with my family. But it’s a new week, so convalescent time is over and back to work I go. I’m headed to the NAC one more time later in the week; until then much of my time will be spent refining a new curriculum (speaking of which: we still have room in this course for anyone interested–more info here). Before I get to my list of what’s caught my eye since last we spoke, a reminder that the National Sexual Assault Conference is happening this week in Pittsburgh. If you can’t be there (like me), follow along at #NSAC2014.

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DV/IPV

Domestic Violence Case Review

The Tribal Forensic Healthcare project has an upcoming webinar, Domestic Violence Case Review. The session will be held August 28th from 3-4:30 ET. Kim Nash is the featured presenter and CEUs/CMEs are available. Click through for details:

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 8-11-14

I’m with the Navy and Marines in Newport, RI this week, one of my favorite gigs of the year. It’s hard to believe it’s that time again, because of course the year has flown by. Less than 10 days left with my kiddo before she returns to school, so I’m especially grateful she’s traveling with me (she’s an excellent and experienced traveling companion, so it’s relatively effortless). Pretty quiet around our house this past weekend, so plenty of time to keep tabs on my social media feeds. And lots of news to stay on top of, so here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke:

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Sexual Assault Testimony

Prepping for Court: Adult Sexual Assault

I’d like to introduce a new series here on the site: Prepping for Court. The purpose is to introduce people to the articles and books that I think are solid, reliable publications that can help inform testimony. Of course I’ll start with adult sexual assault, since it’s still the most popular topic at FHO. For this first one I have broken it into different sections, because different cases will have different issues. But all of the resources listed here are ones that I think are quality, and since we don’t have the time (or will) to read everything that’s ever been published on a given subject, this should give clinicians (and attorneys) a good foundation. Disagree with any of these or think I’ve missed some? Let me know and we’ll address it.

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault Testimony

Since Last We Spoke 8-4-14

I’m on my way to the NAC (for the 2nd of 3 trips down there in a month)–we’re kicking off the inaugural run of a fantastic (I hope) interactive testimony course for SANEs and prosecutors. Considering we started working on this about 18 months ago, it’s exciting to finally see it come to fruition. And a bit nerve-wracking, as all 1st time courses can be. I was pretty focused on prep this weekend and didn’t spend a lot of time surfing the interwebs, but there were still a few things that caught my eye since last we spoke:

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Intimate Partner Homicide Prevention

VAWnet has updated their special collection on intimate partner homicide prevention. You should range around the site a bit–there’s a lot here for clinicians and for the collaborative teams in which we participate.

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Child Abuse Sexual Assault

New Resource: Recognizing When a Child’s Injury or Illness Is Caused by Abuse

OJJDP just released a new resource: Recognizing When a Child’s Injury or Illness Is Caused by Abuse (PDF). It’s written for law enforcement, so this is really more of a SART or MDT resource, than a clinical text. I was happy to see it addresses issues like aging bruises based on color (you can’t), and provides some good overview information about a variety of injuries and other findings. I haven’t gone through the whole thing, but it looks promising. Peds folks weigh in…

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Clinical Guide: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

After yesterday’s post I received a request from an FHO reader for more resources on caring for patients who have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting (literature seems to be divided on the proper terminology so I am using both here). Not surprisingly, there isn’t a huge amount of clinically-focused information out there, and much of it is specific to obstetrics. I rounded up what appeared to be the best and most current articles and clinical guidelines (mostly free full-text) and included links to previous FHO posts addressing the same topic. As always, it’s not exhaustive (I opted to leave most of the obstetric-specific information out), but hopefully it’s useful.

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-28-14

Today is my sweet kid’s 13th birthday, so I am officially the parent of a teenager. I have no idea how that happened. A minute ago she was a newborn and now she’s this funny, interesting, incredibly smart kid who makes me proud every day. Naturally we spent the weekend celebrating (ziplining and dim sum, anyone?) and gorging on homemade Hostess-type treats (my spouse whipped up Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Cupcakes complete with squiggly frosting). Pretty much the only thing I could do after the weekend calorie bombardment was to loll around last night and surf my social media sites. Which is what I did. Here’s what caught my eye since last we spoke:

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Child Abuse DV/IPV

Worthwhile Read: Futures’ Health E-Bulletin Summer 2014

The newest edition of Futures Without Violence‘s Health E-Bulletin (PDF) is now available. Particularly useful is the 1st article on why the ACA-mandated domestic violence screening matters and the one on reproductive coercion. Worth your time.

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-21-14

We finally cleared the last of our houseguests yesterday (that’s 10 days of people in our tiny place for those of you tracking), so we’re back to status quo. I head down to the NAC for the Army this week, but aside from that it should be relatively mellow. I was busy playing tourist in my own city this weekend, but there was still plenty of time to catch up on the news of the day. Here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke:

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Child Abuse Sexual Assault

Full-Text Friday: Multiple Perpetrator Assaults

This week’s Full-Text Friday offering addresses the issue of multiple perpetrator rapes of adolescent girls (sad commentary: I can’t combine those words in the title of this post because of the disgusting trolls that come out of the woodwork). I hear a lot of speculative testimony, and occasionally it is about expectations of injury following sexual assault by multiple assailants. There’s not a ton of research on this topic, so I am pleased to offer this article up as a way to help inform us about the clinical picture of this patient population:

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Sexual Assault

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

Somehow I missed this when it was held in May, but thankfully there’s an archived presentation: Vera Institute’s Center on Victimization and Safety has an archived webinar available on helping patients with disabilities understand the sexual assault medical-forensic exam. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words is available for viewing; I haven’t reviewed it yet, but it looks like a pretty invaluable contribution to the discussion around promising practices. Click through for details:

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Elder Abuse/Neglect Sexual Assault

Coalition-Sponsored Webinars

If you aren’t looking to your state anti-violence coalitions for continuing education, you’re missing some great opportunities. State coalitions do a lot of training, and many are putting on webinars and online courses that have relevance far beyond their state’s borders. Click through for some of the upcoming events, and feel free to add others in the comments (I’ll take those outside the US, too, please):

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-14-14

This weekend was all about the big promotion, with family descending upon DC and filling every corner of our tiny dollhouse of a home. But it was pretty spectacular, and now almost everyone has gone home, and life should return to normal. Normal, of course, includes travel, so I’ll head to the Air Force JAG school later in the week for a tick. Still, there was plenty of time to read, and as always, it appears sexual violence is dominating the headlines (including this massive and painfully familiar sounding article that appeared on the front page of the NY Times). Here’s what has caught my eye since last we spoke:

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-7-14

Here we go: vacation is behind us and a modified (but still busy) travel season resumes for our household. Happily it’s not me on the road this week, but after taking a week off, I can hardly corral my to-do list. Always a trade-off, that whole taking time off thing. Hopefully US readers enjoyed a happy and relaxing 4th–we certainly did (and it was a far more social one than I am used to). But all in all, there was plenty of downtime  and a good amount of reading therein. Here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke: