Citation

Polite FG, Acholonu RG, Harrison N. Obstet. Gynecol. 2019; 134(1): 58-62.

Affiliation

Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Department of Pediatrics, the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York; and Eleanor Health, Boston, MA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/AOG.0000000000003314

PMID

31188321

Abstract

As physicians who represent differing specialties of obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and pediatrics, we have repeatedly experienced stories of sexual assault in the context of our various patient encounters. Although our individual specialties give detailed guidelines for physicians and cover the medical, legal, and mental health aspects, we propose that all physicians should use another category called social responsibility. The mainstay of our social responsibility is to provide the victim with the support and resources to overcome this trauma. We outline the tenets of social responsibility as prevention, trust, reassurance, and resource allocation. We hope to illustrate the importance of advocating for uniform adoption of a trauma-informed care approach to sexual assault survivors.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.

Language: en