Category: Sexual Assault

Perhaps you’ve already listened to the Unladylike podcast featuring Trisha Sheridan’s interview on the episode, How to Get a Rape Kit. If not, you should. Overall, I found it to be pretty delightful to listen to, not just because of Trisha’s centering of the health and well-being of patients over the kit itself, but also because of the excellent interview questions and points made by Cristen and Caroline, the hosts of Unladylike. While there were a few (minor) things I didn’t necessarily agree with, it was just so damn refreshing to hear this healthcare focused explanation of the work we do, I was cheering in my office. The dog was frankly concerned.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

UPDATED: The Center for Investigative Reporting’s podcast, Reveal, has a recent episode on sexual assault investigations and exceptional clearance: Case Cleared (Part 1). I present it here without comment.

This is lengthy, but a worthwhile use of time. I look forward to listening to the follow-up episode(s). The next one will focus on prosecution. I’ll update this post with the next episode once it’s live.

As promised, here is the follow-on, which addresses prosecution:

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

OVC is hosting an Expert Q&A session, Effective Telenursing Response to Sexual Assault. It will be held live on November 14th from 2-3pm, but will be posted on their website afterward for review. Susan Chasson, M.S.N., J.D., SANE–A, and Dr. Sheridan Miyamoto will be the featured presenters. From the website:

In this session targeted toward Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, participants will learn about some of the advantages to telenursing, as well as some of the potential obstacles, such as cross‐state licensure, credentialing for nurses responding to a hospital where they are not employees, provision of medications, and maintenance of medical records. Collaboration with hospital medical and nursing staff is key to an effective telenursing response.

Register here.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

Forensic Technology Center of Excellence has an upcoming webinar: Advancing Research Initiatives and Combatting the Human Trafficking Epidemic. The session will be held on November 1st at 1pm ET. From the website:

Trafficking in persons is a multi-faceted global epidemic which has seen a significant increase in public awareness. However, there is a substantial need to expand capacities and technologies involving representatives from all stakeholders.

During this webinar, recommendations will be discussed addressing general policies and priorities, a need to better protect refugees, immigrants, and other at-risk populations, labor trafficking, and sexual exploitation. With many of these recommendations, key players involved with related research or program activities will be highlighted. In other areas, the recommendations identify the substantial lack of research and activities and are intended as a clarion call for action in a specific identified area associated with human trafficking. A core recommendation to any and all engaged in this work is to maintain a victim-centered approach. 

Register here.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

The SAKI project has a webinar coming up, Victim Notification: Safety and Privacy Planning. It’s an issue we probably don’t give enough consideration, so although it leans a bit more advocacy, I think it’s a great one for any member of a SART. The session will be held October 23rd at 2pm ET. They archive their sessions, so it will be available online if you cannot attend the live event. From the website:

Safety and privacy planning has been recognized as a strong consideration for cold case sexual assault victim notifications in the sexual assault response process. Two presenters from the Salt Lake City, Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenal Justice will address why safety and privacy planning is an important consideration for sexual assault survivors. Additionally, the presenters from this SAKI site will speak to strategies for implementing this concept, including, but not limited to, physical safety, emotional safety, privacy planning, court privacy, confidentiality, and civil orders of protection.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be better able to:

1. Identify and define the need for Safety and Privacy Planning.

2. Discern the difference between Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence victim needs.

3. Gain an understanding of physical safety, emotional safety, privacy planning, court privacy, confidentially, and civil orders of protection.

Register here.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

There’s no way to ignore the amount of rage that women are feeling at this pivotal time in US history. So I was really pleased to hear 3 authors I admire tremendously featured on 1A this morning (all of whom have books out now that happen to be on my current reading list). Rebecca Traister (who was here in DC last night), Soraya Chemaly and Brittney Cooper are brilliant, inciteful, and well worth listening to. And trust me–this isn’t just about politics in this country. This is about the very work that we do, the place in which we are doing that work, and the institutional structures that allow that work to happen (or make it harder for patients to access the care we provide). Take the time to listen.

Oh, and as a bonus? This excellent Katha Pollitt essay in The Nation referencing all three of these feminist giants…

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

Since this seems pretty timely, I figured I’d go ahead and post the National Child Traumatic Stress Network‘s recently published fact sheet, Why Don’t They Tell? Teens and Sexual Assault Disclosure.  Obviously, it’s bigger than this moment in history, but the way folks are talking right now (e.g. on cable news, any social media platform), it’s clear not everyone understands the underlying issue.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

An FHO reader sent me an email asking where the regular Monday posts have been, and here’s the thing–I don’t have much to tell you about what I’ve been looking at since last we spoke because it’s all kind of awful. I know you all are reading the same stuff, and honestly, it’s grinding me down. To protect my psyche a bit, I’ve been trying not to read much at all these last few weekends because the weeks have been so full of terrible news. I know many of you watched, as I did, the Kavanaugh hearings last week, and by Friday, Sasha had enacted a news grayout (we weren’t fully able to commit to a blackout, but we tried pretty hard for the weekend), so weighed down were we by all of it. Bottom line–I’ve stayed off a lot of social media as of late. In fact, this weekend I took advantage of a completely last minute opportunity, hopped a flight to Chicago with my kid, caught a performance of Hamilton, and toured the University of Chicago as the ultimate act of self-care.

That being said, I point your attention toward a couple things worth your attention, particularly in light of current events and the work we do. The first is this solid overview on trauma and memory published by NPR.

The second is a TEDx talk (h/t JPW) on campus sexual assault, given last month by the excellent Dr. Sharyn Potter (acquaint yourself with a selection of her publications here). It specifically looks at one of the less-discussed aspects of campus assaults, the economic consequences. Worth your 15 minutes:

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

NSVRC has just published the 2018 edition of the SART Toolkit, and while I haven’t had a chance to peruse it in its entirety, what I have seen looks great. There’s a lot of content for your healthcare team and your community. The Sexual Assault Response section is a great example of just how much new content is in here (e.g. body-worn cameras), but my nerdy heart beats loudest (so far) for the Meeting Logistics section that has so many good resources for the managers among you. Definitely worth spending some time here. Kudos to everyone involved in this project.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

Kim Day posted this on the IAFN community site last week, so some of you may have already seen it, but in case you didn’t, the national nPEP toolkit project continues to add resources to their site (I posted about the project when it 1st published here). Their newest tool is a policies and procedure template for nPEP (PDF), which I think is extraordinarily useful. IAFN is a partner on this project, so it’s worth checking out the webinar archived over on the SAFEta site if you haven’t already–it complements the toolkit and is a great update for your veteran clinicians or adjunct for new team members.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download.

CDC is reporting rising rates of STDs in the US, which is of concern for many of our practices. Now is a good time to be touching base with your local health departments to see what the clinical picture is in your own community. Of particular concern from the recent report:

• Gonorrhea diagnoses increased 67 percent overall (from 333,004 to 555,608 cases according to preliminary 2017 data) and nearly doubled among men (from 169,130 to 322,169). Increases in diagnoses among women — and the speed with which they are increasing — are also concerning, with cases going up for the third year in a row (from 197,499 to 232,587). CDC continues to be concerned about resistance, as well, although there have not yet been any confirmed cases of resistance to the recommended dual therapy in the US.
• Primary and secondary syphilis diagnoses increased 76 percent (from 17,375 to 30,644 cases). Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) made up almost 70 percent of primary and secondary syphilis cases where the gender of the sex partner is known in 2017.

The full surveillance report is expected to be released at the end of next month; I’ll post it when it comes out.

Have you checked out the FHO store lately? You can find our newest research brief, Aging Bruises Based On Color, plus our original guide, Injury Following Consensual Sex. Both available now for electronic download