An expert is visiting Southeast Alaska communities this week to talk to medical workers and first responders on documenting and reporting abuse.
And she wants to hear from community members, too.
Angela Trujillo is a professor of nursing at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She’s worked with victims of abuse for years, and she helped design a training program with the Alaska Comprehensive Forensic Training Academy.
The training is meant to help providers ask patients the right questions about abuse at the right time.
“They might not be ready to go to law enforcement at the time that they’re willing to talk to the health care provider,” she said. “But if the health care provider can get them to talk to them and can get that documented, then that’s something that can be helpful and useful to them long term.”
Trujillo said some practices to check for abuse are becoming more common, but there’s still work to be done — especially in a place like Alaska, which has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the nation.
“We often hear when you go to the doctor, you know, you’ll be asked, ‘Are you safe at home?’ Trauma-informed care takes it beyond that,” she said. “It really helps the provider to be able to ask those questions in a much more supportive manner.”
These visits will help her understand how to meet the specific needs of Southeast Alaska, whether in Juneau or in much smaller communities like Kake.
“We’re asking and seeking community feedback on how that is appropriate for their communities if they feel like there’s anything missing,” she said. “We’re seeking feedback from communities to make sure that the training is appropriate for everyone.”
She the meetings will be a brief look into the 50-hour training on documenting and reporting abuse she helped develop. Half of that program can be completed remotely. The rest of the training will be held in Anchorage, with dates in either August or December of this year.
Trujillo will be in Juneau at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall Wednesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. She’ll be in Hoonah on Thursday at 8:30 at City Hall and in Kake on Friday at 10 a.m. at the Nest.
