New Resources Available for Professionals Working with Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Three new resources are available for professionals working with victims of Intimate Partner Violence at the Aequitas Resource Center:

• Intimate Partner Violence Victims Charged with Crimes:
  Justice and Accountability for Victims of Battering who use Violence Against their Batterers
  By Jeffrey P. Greipp, Toolsi Gowin Meisner and Douglas J, Miles
• A Prosecutor’s Resource:
  Medical Evidence and the Role of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in Cases Involving Adult Victims?
  By Jenifer Markowitz
• Model Policy for Prosecutors and Judges on Imposing, Modifying and Lifting No Contact Orders
  By Jennifer G. Long, Christopher Mallios, and Sandra Tibbets Murphy

You can access these documents at: www.aequitasresource.org/library.cfm

A New Resource for Evaluating Strangulation Injuries?

Prosecution of strangulation as a domestic violence assault challenges prosecutors. Half the time, strangulation survivors have no neck markings. In the remaining 1/2 of survivors, approximately 2/3rds of them have only minimal findings. This means that only about 1/3rd of survivors with neck markings have neck markings that can be photographed to show signs of the assault. Said another way, of all survivors of strangulation as a form of assault:

1. 50% have no findings
2. 35% have minimal findings that are so faint that they cannot be visualized in photos
3. 15% have significant findings that can be visible in photos taken of the neck

Now a new technique called alternative light source technology may be about to change all of that. See: www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-md-als-dv-20100902,0,2655642.story

Excellent New Resource Collection on Strangulation

Today I got an email from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Section on Forensic Medicine with this comment  and request: “We are encountering more violent strangulation victims in our DV population. I have been unsuccessful finding clinical guidelines for imaging/admit protocols for victims of significant strangulation as I try to objectify the approach to these vicitms for my ED partners”

This email prompts this post for two reasons:

• Do you have a protocol that you would be willing to share with other providers? If so, please email me at DrTSpeaks@gmail.com
• If you are in need of a good resource site for strangulation, please visit the Family Justice Center Resource Center by clicking here.

As always, comments and questions regarding this issue are most welcome.

Manual Strangulation As A Cause of Death

Approximately half of survivors of manual strangulation have neck findings to indicate that strangulation has taken place. Survivors differ from fatal strangulation victims in that the hyoid bone is often not fractured by the attack.

Not all victims of fatal strangulation have external neck findings but many do, especially on TV shows where forensic examiners play a key role.

To see an example of the neck markings in a fatal strangulation, click here. Note that the pathologist has the added benefit of “looking inside” of the injury markings.

An Online Reference for Manual Strangulation in Domestic Violence

Chapter 16 on Strangulation in Intimate Partner Violence by Ellen Taliafero, Dean Hawley, George McClane, and Gael Strack in the Connie Mitchell, MD book, Intimate Partner Violence: A Health-Based Perspective, can now be accessed by clicking here. This is the first major, major textbook on a health-based perspective of Intimate Partner Violence. As noted in one of the editorial reviews of the book, “All in all, this is an excellent book, a major compilation and unique in its approach. It is highly recommended for anyone seeking to further the complex phenomena of intimate partner violence.”–PsycCRITIQUES”

Scholarship Notice from SF Writers Conference

  San Francisco Writers Conference
1029 Jones St., San Francisco, CA 94109 
and the
Health After Trauma Project
PO Box 152, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 

PRESS RELEASE for immediate release

CONTACT: Ellen Taliaferro, MD   650-393-3660

 

The 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference Announces
a Writing Scholarship for Survivors of Domestic Violence:
The Ellen Taliaferro, MD, Scholarship
Dedicated to the Prevention and Intervention of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Survivors of domestic violence—and the advocates and professionals who support them—can all apply for a full scholarship to the 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference (February 12th-14th, 2010) where they will have their non-fiction writing recognized and reviewed by literary agents and publishing houses.

 San Francisco, CA—10/25/09—The 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference has been endowed a remarkable scholarship that will shine a light on the lingering health consequences for victims of domestic violence.  The Ellen Taliaferro, MD, Scholarship Dedicated to the Prevention and Intervention of Domestic Violence and Abuse will be awarded to a writer who is writing as a survivor of domestic violence or an advocate or professional who is working with them.  The scholarship will pay for a full registration to the 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference to be held February 12-14, 2010 at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel.  The scholarship will include a private appointment with a nonfiction editor and agent.  There will be a small stipend to partially cover travel and accommodations.

Writers who wish to apply for the scholarship must submit a 250-word explanation of why they want the scholarship, four (4) pages of their work in progress, and a single-page proposal outline for their project. The story can be written as a personal story, memoir, nonfiction book or novel.  Contact information, including an email address, must be included with the entry.  The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2009.  There is no entry fee required. Entries for The Ellen Taliaferro Scholarship for Survivors of Domestic Violence must be directed electronically to Ellen Taliaferro, MD via email at DrTSpeaks@gmail.com.

For questions about the scholarship, contact Dr. Taliaferro at 650-393-3660.

The 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference will take place February 12-14, 2010 at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel.  Donations from individuals and companies (including John Wiley & Sons) also make scholarships available each year for Bay Area high school students and students studying for their MFA degrees. The Kevin Smokler Scholarships are awarded to talented and deserving adult writers. The San Francisco Writers Conference is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.  For more information about the 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference program, writing contests and scholarships go to www.SFWriters.org.

The scholarship was created by Dr. Ellen Taliaferro, Project Director of the Health After Trauma Project, author of WellWriting For Health After Trauma and Abuse and co-author of The Physician’s Guide to Intimate Partner Violence and Respond to Intimate Partner Violence – 10 Action Steps You Can Take to Help Your Patients and Your Practice (See bio below)

“My goal in funding this scholarship is to highlight awareness to the issue of domestic violence assault, and in particular the issue of manual strangulation as a form of domestic violence physical abuse, through a domestic violence survivor or advocate or professional writing their story in the form of a nonfiction book or novel,” said Dr. Taliaferro.  She adds, “I chose the San Francisco Writers Conference for this scholarship because it excels in offering opportunities for writers attending the conference to interact with the faculty—authors, editors, agents and publishers.”

Individuals and companies can create scholarships in their own name or donate to existing San Francisco Writers Conference scholarship programs.  Go to www.SFWriters.org and click ‘Sponsorships’ for more information.

 

# # #

 

Short Version of the Release:

 
Scholarship Name: The Ellen Taliaferro, MD, Scholarship Dedicated to the Prevention and Intervention of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Details: Submit a 250-word explanation of why you want the scholarship, four (4) pages of your work in progress, and a single-page proposal outline for the project. Work must be nonfiction. There is no entry fee required. Electronic submission is required.

Prize: Full scholarship to the 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference, private meeting with a nonfiction agent and editor, and a small stipend.

Contact: Dr. Taliaferro at 650-393-3660 or DrTspeaks@gmail.com

Deadline: December 15, 2009

BIO:  Ellen H. Taliaferro, MD, FACEP, is the Project Director of the Health After Trauma Project of Creekside Communications.  She is an author, speaker and expert witness in the area of the medical response to intimate partner violence.  In 1998 she founded the Parkland Hospital Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Center in Dallas, Texas and served as its Medical Director until returning home to California in 2001.  She was the co-founder and former Executive Director of Physicians for a Violence-free Society (PVS).  Dr. Taliaferro is the author of WellWriting For Health After Trauma and Abuse and co-author of The Physician’s Guide to Intimate Partner Violence and Respond to Intimate Partner Violence – 10 Action Steps You Can Take to Help Your Patients and Your Practice.

She is the editor of The Journal of Emergency Medicine Section on Violence:  Recognition, Management and Prevention which published a series of articles on manual strangulation in October 2001.  For that series of articles, she wrote the lead article, Walking and Talking Victims of Strangulation.  Is There a New Epidemic?

A New Housing Resource for Advocates and Survivors of Domestic Violence

 

Domestic violence survivors face many challenges. One of the most basic challenges revolves around the issue of affordable and safe housing. The National Housing Law Project now has produced a guidebook for to address these issues: The Domestic Violence and Housing Manual.

To obtain your own copy of this manual, please click here.

Cost of Domestic Violence in the Workplace

My colleague, Stephanie Angelo, was recently interviewed by Larry Kaminer of the Personal Safety Group in Seattle, WA. Stephanie’s company, Human Resource Essential, works with the HR groups of organizations to put into place an effective and empowering response to company employees who are coping with domestic violence at home.

Please click here to listen to Stephanie Angelo’s radio interview with Larry Kaminer.

Check Out Casey Gwinn’s Blog

52 Days of Domestic Violence Flu in America

by

Casey Gwinn

This week I have been reflecting on those that would choose to ignore the importance of dealing with domestic violence in America. After over 30 years of the modern domestic violence movement, we still struggle for funding, we face budget cuts and reductions when the economy goes bad (though domestic violence rises) and we rarely are the primary focus of public policy makers in America. This week the news is consumed with coverage of the swine flu, an important public health issue in America. As of May 2, there have been 167 confirmed cases of the swine flu in the United States and one death. But there has been little news about the mass killings of 68 people across America in the last 52 days, with men doing all the killing and virtually all related to men with a history of violence against women.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Breaking Free of A Chokehold During A Domestic Violence Attack

By

Ellen Taliaferro, MD, FACEP

We now know that manual strangulation as a form of domestic violence assault is not an uncommon form of physical assault.

How can victims be safe then this happens to them? Help comes from the Expert Village website video on how to escape a Sleeper Hold & Strangulation  using Fung Fu,

Click here to see this video now.

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