One of my main co-conspirators collaborators, Jennifer Pierce-Weeks, is the featured speaker in an upcoming webinar hosted by NSVRC, Sexual Violence in Later Life: Strategies for Healthcare Providers. The session will be held twice: 11 and 12 June, 2-3:30pm ET. Please note–the audience will be limited to 30 participants for each session so register ASAP. Details after the jump:
Category: Elder Abuse/Neglect
Man, am I tardy on this. Finally–once again here’s this (and last) month’s Articles of Note, a look at what has caught my eye from the recently published, peer-reviewed literature. There’s a lot of good stuff in this round up, so I would encourage you to peruse the abstracts. Keep in mind this isn’t a comprehensive list, just the things that interested me. Click through for the link:
Great seeing so many of you last week in Kansas City. This week I’m off to do a testimony workshop in Tucson, but not before spending a couple days in DC working on policy and response issues. Our great friends got married in NYC this past weekend, so I didn’t do a whole lot of reading, what with all the eating and merry-making. That being said there were a few things I was able to peruse while making my way home–here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke:
April is both Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month: two issues central to many of our practices, both of which can take a serious toll on clinicians. It seems like compassion fatigue (and its sisters, vicarious trauma and burnout) don’t get nearly enough attention in our professional circles. But really, they should–a recent study found that 85% of emergency department nurses surveyed reported moderate to high levels of compassion fatigue. I’d be interested in what the results would look like if they surveyed a group of forensic clinicians.
Time once again for Articles of Note, our monthly round up of what’s new and notable in the peer-reviewed literature. There’s some really practice-specific research in here this time around, especially for those of you with sexual assault practices. As always this is neither exhaustive nor definitive, just what’s caught my eye in the last month. Contact me for the word doc if you want it. Otherwise, click through for the PDF:
So I received an email from one of my many Canadian readers asking for a little Canada love in choosing the next full-text offering. She said it’s helpful for Canadian readers to be exposed to the breadth of quality research being done in their country, and I am totally on board with that. However, don’t go away US (and other country) readers–this research has plenty of relevance outside of Canada. We’ll be focusing on elder abuse for today’s article–click through to get all the details.
So I feel like I say this every month, but holy hell there’s some *awesome* stuff in the literature this month. How can you not get excited by some of the articles being published right now? (Don’t roll your eyes at me, people, I can totally see you.) Even the stuff that’s not 100% relevant to our practice is just fascinating. Add to that the fact that more articles than usual are free full-text and that just leaves me beyond excited. As always, keep in mind this isn’t an exhaustive list; just the articles that caught my eye as I reviewed the new literature. Links lead to PubMed abstracts unless otherwise indicated.
Well, my friends, I am heading out the door bright and early tomorrow for a week of work in the Pacific. I will be putting in some guaranteed long hours so posts next week may be spotty. Please note that if you send me requests or questions I may be a bit delayed in responding, so thanks in advance for your patience. In the meantime, here’s this month’s Articles of Note. Some great stuff out this month, and even a few free full-text articles. There’s a lot to slog through, but I couldn’t help myself. Enjoy.
Medscape has an overview of an article (recently published in Neurology), Brain Injury Lingers at Least 4 Months After Concussion, about the length of time it takes to fully heal from mild traumatic brain injury. As professionals caring for assaulted patients it’s certainly worth a read (and some ensuing discussion) considering statements such as this:
He said it was not possible from this study to give advice on how long the brain takes to return to normal. “But I would say that the current advice that the patient just sits out for a week is really not satisfactory. Our results suggest a much longer period is needed for healing. If it was my child with a concussion I would try and preclude activities that might result in another mild traumatic brain injury for at least a couple of months and probably longer.”
Piggybacking on the release of this excellent document (at least in my mind–don’t know if that’s actually the way this was conceived), allow me to link you one of the newer elearning options available through NSVRC, Maturing Your Services: Advocating for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Later Life. Don’t let the word advocating put you off, healthcare people, this is for you, too. Details after the jump:
Can I just tell you, I have been waiting *so long* for this to come out. I was lucky enough to get to review it, so I have known for some time what you all will now see–NSVRC has published an excellent technical assistance guide, written by Jennifer Pierce-Weeks, Sexual Violence in Later Life. It’s written for clinicians and it’s full of clinically relevant information that will make all of us better at caring for this patient population. It certainly won’t hurt your ability to testify, either.
Let me just preface this by saying that my beloved PubMed has essentially been furloughed with this shutdown, so it has a sad little message when you visit it right now–“PubMed is open, however it is being maintained with minimal staffing due to the lapse in government funding. Information will be updated to the extent possible, and the agency will attempt to respond to urgent operational inquiries. For updates regarding government operating status see USA.gov.” [insert nerd frownie face here] But we can’t stop with the Articles of Note just because the US has a spectacularly dysfunctional congress, so banish that thought.
Categories
Understanding Elder Abuse
Here’s a publication that got buried in my inbox–Understanding Elder Abuse (PDF). It’s an NIJ research brief that came out this summer, and the emphasis of the article is on theories that help us understand elder abuse and why it occurs. Wonky, but interesting. Certainly some ideas that can help us shape the conversation about elder abuse.
I meant to post this Friday before I knocked off for the day, but somehow never hit the publish button. So here (belatedly) is August’s Articles of Note, a compilation of some of the newest and most relevant research in the August/September/early October journals. Remember, this isn’t an exhaustive list, just some of what has caught my eye.
Time once again for Articles of Note, in which I share the recently published literature that’s capturing my attention. Please remember this is not an exhaustive overview of what’s newly available, but it should give you a good place to start. There’s some amazing stuff out this month, so I think this list is a particularly rich one. Plus several familiar names among the authors, which is always fun.
Is there a greater luxury than a week at home? For some of us, the answer is a resounding no. So many odds and ends to work through, but that doesn’t stop me from letting my mind (and eyes) wander. Here’s some of what I’ve been reading since last we spoke:
Just a quick note this morning: I have updated the clinical guide on using alternate light sources for identifying bruising. There’s still not much in the way of solid research on this one, so keep that in mind. But I am regularly asked about it as a tool, so look through what’s available. And if I’m missing anything critical, please let me know and I’ll add it.
I was all about goofing off this weekend, but that doesn’t actually mean I got to ignore the work stuff. The fruits of NOT ignoring the work will be published here soon. But in the meantime, here is some of what I’ve been reading since last we spoke:
Time once again for Articles of Note, a review of what’s new in the peer-reviewed journals. Keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive overview; it’s simply what’s caught my eye over the past month. It’s kind of a quiet month for the research, but there’s good stuff to be found here, especially for the peds folks. As always, please contact me if you want the word doc. Otherwise, the printable and hyperlinked doc can be found after the jump.
Hey–want to know something we suck at? Acknowledging and managing our own trauma from this work we do. Everyone I know in this field (including me) could probably do a better job at the whole self-care thing. And if you’re a program manager, you especially need to be concerned about this issue, because it’s critical that we give members of our teams space to talk about how this work impacts our lives and figure out healthy ways to address the trauma.