On the other hand, there are too many, way too many, “health professionals” that have read a book or an article, and consider themselves experts on the subject. These people can do serious harm.
About 5-6 years ago, I was having Christmas dinner at my house. I was carving up the rib roast, and my wife, who was doing something with the pots behind my back, bumped into me. Unfortunately, this knocked the roast off onto the floor.
Both my wife and I dived to catch it, me with the very sharp carving knife in my hand. It inflicted a serious injury to her ring finger.
We rushed her to the emergency room, but you would not believe the pressure the admitting nurse put on her to say it was something other than an accident. I could not believe the glares I got for her and a couple more nurses.
If she had been a child, I would have probably wound up in jail for the night. That is, until they checked out with the other 5 adult witness what had happened.
A little education is a dangerous thing, and incompetents rule most professions, IMO.
If a professional fails to report potential abuse, it’s on them, and it’s a CRIME. Thanks your legislators.
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I was at the doctor's for some routine reason a few years ago, when he asked me if my husband ever hit me. I laughed because it was completely out of the blue and had nothing to do with why I was there. There was also no evidence of abuse. He seemed very angry with me for my response, which seemed somewhat ironic to me.
You can at least partially blame this aggressiveness in identifying potential abuse on JCAHO, which accredits healthcare organizations. They are systematically raising the bar in many areas, and abuse is one of them. I have nothing against screening for abuse, but the problem is that it needs to be done by someone TRAINED to do so.