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Worthwhile Read: Modeling Trauma Informed Practice

My friend Sally tweeted this resource out and I thought it was worth sharing here. It’s a brief piece called Walking the Walk: Modeling Trauma Informed Practice In the Training Environment (PDF). I’m still chewing on this a bit, but I think there are great ideas here. And the intent behind it is an important one:

One of the key components of building organizational capacity for trauma informed practice is professional development. Staff needs training to gain basic understanding about trauma, its prevalence and impact on individuals, families, communities and organizations; what it means to be trauma informed; and specific skills and techniques for providing services in a trauma informed manner. It is not enough, however, to just “inform” professionals about trauma in our efforts to establish a trauma informed workforce. It is essential that in the process of providing professional development and workforce training we imbed and model principles of trauma informed practice in the training environment.

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Child Abuse Sexual Assault

Working with Men Sexually Abused in Childhood

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.

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Worthwhile Read: #WhyIStayed & #WhyILeft

In the wake of the Ray Rice video there has been some spectacular reading dominating my Twitter feed. Certainly more than I can keep up with. I recommend checking out the entries under the hashtags #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft (and also #WhenILeft). They would make a great jumping off point for talks with your team about the realities our patients experience every day, or the basis for an inservice for Emergency Department or L&D personnel (especially if you’re hearing crap like “I don’t know why she expects us to care about her when she clearly doesn’t”, or other such nonsense).

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 9-8-14

I woke up this morning at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, very far from home and decidedly still on east coast time. I’ll be here for a hot minute before I move on to Billings, MT where we are rolling out a brand new IPV curriculum (super excited about that), so this week is a long one. I will attempt regular posts, but forgive me if they’re a bit light this week. You just never know how a new course will go. This weekend consisted of a lot of prep, but there was still plenty of distraction–here’s what caught my eye since last we spoke:

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Elder Abuse/Neglect Sexual Assault

Why Social Media for Injury and Violence Prevention

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:

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

TEDx Talk: Human Trafficking

I’m on vacation today, so I leave you with this talk by Rachel Lloyd from GEMS in NYC:

 

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Uncategorized

Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors Town Hall

From an email announcement I received today:

The National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS) in collaboration with the NCTSN Culture Consortium, Terrorism and Disaster Program and Policy Taskforce, is sponsoring a Virtual Town Hall meeting to address the recent surge in unaccompanied immigrant minors from a trauma-informed perspective. Unaccompanied immigrant minors are youth who come to the United States without a legal guardian and without legal immigration documents. There has also been a surge of young children who come with their caregiver across the border of the United States without immigration documentation. The 90-minute Town Hall is scheduled for Tuesday, September 16th at 9 Pacific / 11 Central / 12 Eastern (see attached flyer). All are welcome!

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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

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 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 Sexual Assault

Missing & Exploited: Child Sex Trafficking Reporting and Recovery Planning

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:

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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 Sexual Assault

Full-Text Friday: Best Clinical Practices for Male Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

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: