Evidence suggests that resources to address campus sexual violence (CSV) are inconsistently offered across institutions of higher education (IHE), and thus there is a need for campuses to continually assess their provision of resources and services to improve the climate and well-being of students. Conducting a periodical scan of resources provided is one way for IHE to assess their adherence to best practices. The current study describes the development of the Services, Policies and Programs Audit (SPPA) tool, created to help IHE evaluate their adherence with best practices related to the provision of services, policies, and programs on campus. The tool was piloted with 18 individuals from 12 different IHE across the country. Exploratory evaluation of the SPPA indicates that it may be a useful tool for self-examination of campus policies, services, and prevention and education efforts. Participants from the 12 IHE who participated in the pilot generally reported that the SPPA was helpful to their efforts. Interrater reliability results indicated that the position of the person who completes the tool impacts the scoring, with those who are more familiar with CSV services scoring higher. This aligns with other research indicating that it is important not only to have resources on campus to address CSV but also to ensure that the campus community is aware of them. The SPPA can potentially serve as one part of a larger toolkit used by IHE to assess their efforts to address CSV.

Campus sexual assault (CSA) has received unprecedented attention over recent years, resulting in an abundance of federal guidance and mandates. In response, efforts to address and prevent CSA at Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) across the country have grown quickly, including the development and implementation of programs and policies. Because the changes on campuses have occurred at such a rapid pace, a number of gaps exist within the field of CSA research. To ensure that changes on IHE are evidence-based, there is a need to review the existing research available and the inquiry still needed, based on key areas outlined in federal guidance, the expressed needs of campus community members, survivors, and students who commit sexual offenses on college campuses. The purpose of this review is to summarize the empirical research related to CSA gained from the past two decades and identify areas in which further work is needed, specifically related to key areas identified in recent guidance provided to IHE. This article concludes with guidance for research moving forward to help strengthen response and prevention efforts.

Objectives: Aggressive behaviors by patients with dementia present risk to health care workers and patients. An information processing model, developed to study aggressive behaviors among children, was applied to study aggression among older hospital patients with dementia. Hypotheses were that delirium and mental health or depression history, would relate to increased risk of aggressive behaviors.Method: Electronic medical records were sampled for one year (n = 5008) and screened using the EMERSE search engine and hand review for dementia (n = 505) and aggressive behavior in individuals with dementia (n = 121). Records were reviewed for mental health history and presence of delirium.Results: Regression analyses found interaction effects representing delirium and mental health or depression history associated with greater risk of aggressive behavior. Significant main effects were found for both dementia and mental health or depression history. Of the lowest risk group, 12% of patients exhibited aggression compared to 24%-35% of those with delirium, mental health or depression history, or the combination of these risk factors.Conclusion: Delirium is the leading correlate of aggressive behaviors in hospitalized patients with dementia, and delirium or history of mental health diagnosis may lead to increased risk of aggressive behaviors in this setting.

Although management of dementia and prevention of aggressive behaviors in the inpatient hospital setting are important issues, data on their frequency are lacking. This study provides insight into demographics and begins an exploration of factors related to aggression in this population. Electronic medical records (EMR) of a large public hospital (45,000 discharges/year) were reviewed using the EMERSE search tool. Of the 14,080 adults aged 60+ who spent at least 24 hours at the hospital during the one year study time frame, we examined the EMR of the first 4,000 patients and every 10th person through 14,080 who met these criteria (N=5,008). Ten percent (n=505) had a diagnosed or suspected dementia noted in the record; approximately 25% (n=105) of these had reports of aggressive incidents in their medical record. Sixty-one percent (n=64) of aggression incidents occurred during delirium states. There was no difference in the mean age of the dementia patients compared to the group with aggression (both 78 yo). Those who had incidents of aggression were 49% male (versus 46% of the total group with dementia), 79% white, and 13% black (reflecting the entire sample). Less than one-third of the known dementia patients (n=154) were given cognitive screens to assess their current status. When aggressive behaviors appeared, less than half had a screener attempted to assess current status; if formal assessment of delirium occurred, it was not documented in the EMR, despite the documentation of either rapid decline into classic symptoms or a clinical observation of delirium. It appears that delirium is the leading reason for aggressive behaviors in hospitalized patients with dementia. Our data suggest that demographic differences do not predict aggression, although adequate documentation of dementia diagnoses or cognitive testing conducted were inconsistent in the EMR. Studies suggest that low-cost, nonpharmacological interventions may be the most effective intervention for managing disruptive behaviors and preventing delirium. Hospitals could benefit from implementing such interventions, which would subsequently reduce the incidence of aggressive behaviors and improve hospital effectiveness and efficiency.

Social workers will inevitably encounter survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault in their work. In this study we explore how education, training, and personal or professional experiences influence students' attitudes, beliefs, and behavior toward survivors. Results indicate that education and/or training decreases students' blaming attitudes and beliefs supportive of myths and increases their screening behavior. Additionally, professional experience and indirect personal experience was found to predict screening behavior, whereas direct personal experience did not show any significance. These results provide much needed information for schools to better prepare students to work with survivors of violence.