Initially developed by students at St. Louis University Medical School, the Child Abuse Prevention Project (CAPP) is a program for teaching children about their "body rights" and what to do if those rights are violated. Through CAPP, medical students will be trained to give interactive, nonfrightening presentations to children, stressing the difference between "good" and "confusing" touches and each child's right to say no to unwanted advances. The presentation includes age-appropriate videotape selections from the series "Child Sexual Abuse: A Solution," followed by discussion and role-playing. Medical students will also be trained in handling disclosures and recognizing the "red flags" of child sexual abuse.
To launch your program, contact your hospital's child abuse treatment team (to ensure licensed physicians oversee and evaluate the program) and then approach your local school board so you can begin teaching the program at a trial school. Your hospital may also be interested in having CAPP presentations for suitable pediatric inpatients.
The program will not require a large number of medical students to serve as CAPP teachers in order to be viable (you can start with six teaching teams of two students each). However, aggressively promote the training sessions to all interested students as these present an excellent opportunity to educate your peers specifically on child abuse.
This program allows you to create a greater awareness of child abuse and present some of the symptoms practitioners should look for in order to make accurate diagnoses. Schedule your program as a lunchtime lecture and secure a lecture hall for the presentation. Invite the director of your medical center's child abuse clinic (or its equivalent) to open the program, discuss the legal ramifications of intervention, and explore how to handle the long term therapeutic response. In addition, invite a member of your pediatrics department who can lead discussion on the physical exam of the abused child and explain the importance of correlating the exam with the history provided by the child and parent or guardian. At least one of your speakers should have slides or illustrations depicting injuries of abuse and both should address the risk factors which predispose a child to abuse.
You need to allow time for a question and answer period, and include food and refreshments to attract participants.
This program educates medical students on the clinical skills necessary to address domestic violence. Through this course you can build on the growing awareness of domestic violence and provide your colleagues with the tools they need for effective interventions. The program addresses the following areas: Diagnosis (identify the clinical signs and symptoms), Work Up, Treatment and follow up.
To help you with preparation, form a committee on domestic violence as part of your MSS chapter. Committee members can then be assigned individual responsibilities for selecting and inviting speakers, developing handouts, promoting the program, and coordinating any food or beverages you are able to serve.
For this program you will produce and distribute domestic violence referral cards at area women's shelters. These cards contain information directing victims to where they can receive medical attention and psychological counseling, as well as locations where they can receive long term shelter.
Resources are available through the AMA's National Coalition of Physicians Against Family Violence at (312) 464-5066. You can find additional information in What You Can Do About Family Violence, a Federation Guide to the Physicians' Campaign Against Family Violence, available directly from the DMSS. You will need to research community resources to select those appropriate for your referral card.
This domestic violence program builds on professional and community awareness by training volunteers who can assist in crisis situations. To do this, you can organize a seminar series with a local emergency room that can help you develop criteria for volunteer certification in domestic violence intervention. Most of these seminars should be taught by an expert, such as the director of a local battered women's shelter. Speakers for other sessions should include, where appropriate, counselors, a judge and a local police officer.
The following sixteen sessions cover many of the topics you will want to include in your seminar series:
If you choose not to offer food or refreshments, this will make it easier to hold the program without a registration fee. You should plan on an aggressive campus-wide advertising campaign to ensure adequate participation. Program evaluations are essential to determining your program's success and can be conducted after each session and at the end with those participants certifying as domestic violence volunteer counselors.
This domestic violence lecture series is designed to cover the following four topics:
Understanding the cycle of violence - educate people on the scope and entrenched patterns of domestic violence in our society.
Support services for victims of abuse - there are resources available, with more developing as this problem receives greater attention.
Legal protection for victims - both law enforcement agencies and the legal system are increasingly recognizing this problem.
Domestic violence in all areas of medical care - learn the role physicians can play by detecting victims of domestic abuse in their practice.
This program is structured around four "brown bag" lunches which can be held in any available lecture hall on the campus of your school. The "brown bag" format will keep your expenses down, although refreshments and cookies will spruce up the function. By scheduling your presentations at lunch you minimize work and class conflicts, allowing more interested persons to attend.
To supplement this program your chapter may be able to coordinate, with your county society, a domestic violence informational booth at an annual health fair. The goal of these booths is to pass out family violence brochures and wallet sized cards listing the "early signs" of abuse and telephone numbers for crisis centers. Any community health fair would be an excellent venue for such a booth, which allows you to reach the lay public with the domestic violence message. The booth can be staffed by students, harnessing the enthusiasm of those who participated in the lecture series.
This program should increase the awareness and understanding of domestic violence in your community, provide information to persons who are - or know others who are - victims of violence, and make physicians and medical students aware of the role they can play in this problem.
In recognition of October as Family Violence Awareness Month, this project has three goals:
To increase public awareness of family violence and to educate the public about local and national agencies offering assistance to victims.
To educate medical students and physicians on family violence, with a focus on how to identify victims and provide assistance.
To raise money for a local battered women's shelter or equivalent assistance agency.
You can start by designing a "Saturday at the Mall" program to take place at a local mall. Through this program chapter members can field questions and provide informational materials on family violence. At the same time, you can conduct a raffle to raise money for a local shelter. Area businesses can be approached for additional donations (money, food, clothing, etc...) and to provide raffle prizes. Your chapter can sell tickets for $1.00 at your medical school and during the "Saturday at the Mall" program.
You should plan lunchtime seminars (if possible, provide meals) during the preceding week to build interest in family violence and encourage attendance at the "Saturday" program. A suggested sequence of seminar topics follows:
Present a general overview of violence in our society. Use the AMA Alliance video on domestic violence.
Focus on survivors of abuse, include a speech by someone who has been through the cycle of family violence.
Conduct a workshop for medical students and physicians on how to identify victims, in particular women and children. The first part of the session can be run by a local child abuse evaluation team, with the second half focused on identifying battered women and how to assist them without becoming the "benevolent tyrant." To help you prepare, the AMA has published four Diagnostic and Treatment Guidelines covering topics in family violence:
Copies can be obtained from the AMA Department of Mental Health, (312/464-5066).
You should develop a list of local and national victim assistance agencies which can be printed on pocket- sized cards and distributed to local physicians, residents, medical students and the public. These cards help sustain the program's impact by providing ready access to help for both the public and the practitioner.