Forensics Victims of Crime Act

Kentucky ranks 2nd in the nation for child abuse rate with more than twice the national average with over 50,000 reports of abuse or neglect, 16,000 cases of substantiated abuse in FY 2016 and a rate of 18.7/1000 children. This large number can quickly overload a system that includes the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), hospitals, and the four practicing child abuse pediatricians in the state, along with multiple other resources. Additionally these evaluations are time consuming and not easily addressed in an emergency department or primary care setting. When violence such as child abuse (physical or sexual) is identified, further care, beyond basic medical care, is also essential and typically requires a multidisciplinary approach. This has required a creative approach to trying to broaden this field in the state of Kentucky with the limited resources available. The development of the field of sexual assault nurse examiners has been a pioneer in the use of nurses for forensic purposes and has shown a great deal of success that ultimately led to a new role for nurses, the forensic nurse examiner. Funding from the VOCA grant will allow us to utilize Forensic Nurses for evaluations of children that are victims of child maltreatment by primarily supporting 0.9 FTE of a nurse’s time in addition to 0.9 FTE of a Forensic Social Worker’s time and support the continued growth of the Division of Pediatric Forensic Medicine at the University of Kentucky.