Helping Survivors of Violence Heal
On a typical day, Sue* may be paged by BIDMC’s emergency department to talk with a patient who was sexually assaulted, speak with an inpatient who was attacked on the subway and needs financial assistance with medical bills, and consult with a community agency whose client’s immigration status is being threatened by her abusive husband.
Sue is an advocate at BIDMC’s Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery (CVPR). She and other CVPR staff provide crisis intervention, counseling and advocacy services to BIDMC patients and staff who are survivors of violence. They also lead support groups for female survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and trauma.
CVPR staff are available to consult with patients and providers throughout the medical center. “We can be paged weekdays to speak with survivors in person and arrange follow-up care,” Sue says. “We also consult with providers by phone after hours or on weekends.”
BIDMC clinicians call Sue when they suspect that a patient has been assaulted. “I work with the patient to develop a plan of safety and support. Depending on the situation, this may include assisting a patient in getting to a safe place, discussing legal options, coordinating follow-up counseling, or locating community resources. Most importantly, I tell them it is not their fault, they are not alone and help is available.”
Since 1998, the CVPR has provided free assistance to 300 survivors of violence annually through its three programs: The 30-year-old rape intervention program, recently nominated for a Champion of Change Award from the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center; the Safe Transitions domestic violence program; and the Community Violence Response Program, in which CVPR staff assist survivors from local neighborhoods. Staff also counsel service providers experiencing secondary trauma, and train BIDMC clinicians to identify and respond to patients who have been assaulted.
Lisa Hartwick, L.I.C.S.W., became director of the CVPR last September following nine years at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. Hartwick notes that BIDMC is a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) site, and the second busiest local hospital for sexual assault cases. “Universities refer here because of our excellent reputation for follow up care, and for the training that we provide,” she says.
According to Tracey McHugh, L.I.C.S.W., who counsels ongoing clients, “The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the changes patients make in their lives and watching them heal.”
The CVPR also plays an active role within community coalitions. Lisa Tieszen, L.I.C.S.W., is project director for the statewide Advocacy, Education and Support Project, which helps providers deal with secondary traumatic stress. “We help patients find their voice in speaking about their experience of violence, and join with them and others in the community to make systemic change,” she says.
Call the CVPR at 617-667-8141. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. BIDMC clinicians can page CVPR staff 24/7 at #31389 for consults.
- Valerie Hope Goldstein
* name changed to protect safety
Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.
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Medicine Without Boundaries
Lewis Lipsitz, M.D, BIDMC chief of gerontology and Hebrew SeniorLife vice president for academic medicine, and his wife, Louise, principal of the Deerfield School in Westwood, embarked on a life-changing journey last fall. Together they shared their knowledge and experience with the people of Boston’s “sister city,” Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Lewis Lipsitz, M.D., with Nela Chukrienko, M.D., chief of family medicine, Dnepropetrovsk State Medical Academy.
Since the Soviet Union’s break up in 1991, a consortium of Boston agencies and the Jewish community have brought Jewish and nonsectarian programs to the impoverished city. In 1995, BIDMC Chief of Ob/Gyn Benjamin Sachs, M.D., chair of the Committee for Post Soviet Jewry/Jewish Community Relations Council, paved the way by establishing the Corky Ribakoff Women’s Health Clinic in Dnepropetrovsk.
Now the Lipsitzes, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, sought to help the city’s elderly and school-aged children. An antiquated medical system and hospitals short on necessities make access to medical care difficult, particularly for the poor elderly.
“People who fall and break their hip just go to bed and either die of complications or spend their remaining life unable to walk,” Lewis says. To change this, he identified an orthopedic surgeon who was willing and able to operate on poor elderly people, developed a protocol to guide the medical management of these patients, gathered the necessary supplies and staff from the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk to support the surgery and in-hospital care, and organized rehabilitation services at the Jewish community’s assisted living facility and home care program. He also made presentations about geriatric medicine to medical students and practicing physicians and consulted on elderly patients at an assisted living facility.
Louise Lipsitz (center) with physicians from the Ribakoff Women's Health Clinic.
Louise consulted at a kindergarten, day school and programs for special needs children, taught English to four- and five-year-olds, and presented a lecture to 1,000 women. “Working with both educators and parents, I offered ideas about how to enhance the children’s education,” she says. “For instance, the value of parent/teacher collaboration was a new concept there.”
Lewis adds, “We came away feeling quite gratified to know we could use our skills to make a significant impact on the lives of people less fortunate than us. We learned that a community that cares for its elderly and teaches its children is enlightened by the past and prepared for the future.”
The Lipsitzes’ work is only one of many global projects by BIDMC physicians:
Philip Anderson, M.D., emergency services, (above, second from right), led emergency care discussions in the United Arab Emirates. Pictured with Anderson (l-r): Fellow panelists Azan Binbrek (moderator), Jassim Al Suwaldi and Gale Henderson, who joined him in fielding audience questions on emergency management of acute conditions.
Joseph Carozza, M.D., interventional cardiology, and Eugene Vaninov, M.D., cardiology (l-r) are transmitting telemedicine conferences on cardiovascular disease to institutes in Moscow through the newly established Russian-American Cardiovascular Institute.
Jacques Carter, M.D., M.P.H., general medicine, is developing a program to bring state-of-the-art medical and surgical education to Latin America. He has given presentations in Honduras, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador, joined at times by Leo Villegas, M.D., and Sareh Parangi, M.D., both of surgery, and Lawrence Garcia, M.D., cardiology. Above: Carter (center) with the leaders of a health conference in Medellin, Colombia, where he presented the keynote address.
Anurag Das, M.D., F.A.C.S., urology/surgery, (right), was named the first Indian American Urologic Association Visiting Scholar. He presented a named lecture at the national congress of the Urological Society of India and visited urologic centers of excellence in India.
Don DeSilva, M.D., (above, second from left), anesthesia and critical care and founding member of the Sri Lanka Association of New England (SLANE), assisted tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka.
Photo by MJ Maloney. Copyright 2004 Joslin Diabetes Center.
Antoine Kaldany, M.D., Joslin Diabetes Center, (right), is the director of strategy and program development for Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate - Bahrain
Harvey Makadon, M.D., works in more than 12 countries on behalf of Harvard Medical International to help develop high-quality hospital systems, with help from BIDMC nurses and other staff. He is also developing H.I.V. education programs for Indian clinicians. Above: Makadon (third from right) with HMI Quality Team and leadership at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre in Chennai, India. (L-r): Ryan Wildes, Elizabeth Brown, Sharon Kleefield, Al Gillis, Rhada Venkatachalam, Makadon, John Helfrick and Krishna Seshadri.
Stuart Rosenberg, M.D., CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, (above, left), along with Josef Fischer, M.D., (center) and Ralph de la Torre, M.D., both of surgery, met medical and business leaders in Shanghai, China to plan a Cardiac Center designed to foster training and clinical care.
Sumner A. Slavin, M.D., chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery, (right), trains Israeli plastic surgeons in the latest techniques for trauma survivors.
Robert Thurer, M.D., cardiothoracic surgery, (left), was appointed chief academic officer for the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center, part of the Harvard Medical International-Dubai strategic collaboration in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.