I am actually home for the next 2 weeks, which is pretty clutch at this point because, projects. And more importantly, deadlines. So my short jaunt to Korea is off the books and I am happily working away here in DC. A true luxury because I am entertaining for Rosh Hashanah this week and can actually attend Kol Nidre services next week. This will be the first year in who knows how long that I will be home to celebrate the High Holidays in full. But I am getting ahead of myself–let’s talk about what’s caught my eye since last we spoke, because seriously, there was quite a bit to read this weekend:
Category: Child Abuse
Greetings from Montgomery, AL, from where I am currently trying to escape after a brief lecture at Maxwell AFB. If you’ve been playing along at home, you know that I have managed to hit all 4 time zones in the continental US over the past week, and I’m on day 8 of travel, which is making me cranky. Assuming the weather holds I’ll be home tonight and for the next couple weeks. Let’s not talk about October right now; I’m going to pretend it’s simply not happening. My failed attempt to get an earlier flight home means I am sitting at the airport with all kinds of time to catch up on the interwebs; here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke:
1in6 is hosting a webinar next week, Working with Men Sexually Abused in Childhood. It will be held September 17th from 10:30-12pm PT. Click through for the description; this one is so relevant to the work we do in all aspects of our clinical world, so I encourage you to check it out.
Futures Without Violence and the American Academy of Pediatrics have a free, online learning module, Addressing the Bigger Picture in Pediatric Settings: Adverse Childhood Experiences. The session is available for CEU/CME credit. Click through for details:
The National Academy of Sciences released their book, Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: A Guide for the Healthcare Sector. This is based on the 2013 report of the same name, but is specific to clinicians. The download is available for free, but site registration is required.
I’m always harping on the importance of social media as a tool for the work we do, so I’m thrilled that Safe States and the CDC are collaborating on an upcoming webinar series that addresses just that. Why Social Media for Injury and Violence Prevention (IVP) kicks off the series September 17th from 1-2pm ET. Click through for details about the session and information about the entire series:
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.
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:
The newest edition of Global Health: Science and Practice is out and it includes an article by the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca and Jane Sigmon, former Director of OVC, now at the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (I’ve posted their annual TIP Report here). Combating trafficking in persons: A call to action for global health professionals (PDF) is available for free download. It’s a good basic article for clinicians, and since I get pretty regular requests for just such an article, I’d encourage you to take a look at it. It’s worth your time.
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:
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…
NCMEC has a free webinar coming up, Missing and Exploited: Child Sex Trafficking Reporting and Recovery Planning (PDF). The session will be held August 19th from 2-3:30pm ET. Click through for details:
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.
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:
This week’s full-text offering is from The Permanente Journal and it addresses an issue that certainly doesn’t get discussed enough in healthcare circles: male patients who have experienced child sexual abuse. Coincidentally, I just saw that IAFN posted this article on Facebook, as well, so perhaps some of you have read the article already. If not, I recommend it. Click through for more details:
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.
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:
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):
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:
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: