Consensual Touch & Trauma Informed Medical Exams

by Molly McHenry, Family Nurse Practitioner, Adoptive Parent

Encompass Adoptees Adoption Issues Online Speaker Series

Presentation Description:

This presentation will explore how to navigate consensual touch within the medical setting while providing care for all ages. With high rates of adverse childhood events (ACEs) in the general public, it is prudent to approach all patient care with a trauma-informed lens. For example, asking for consent before touching allows the onus of control to reside with the patient while simultaneously building trust and rapport. Modeling consensual touch can empower and embolden people to expect touch to be consensual in all aspects of their lives and encourage a sense of self advocacy. 

Presenter Bio:

Molly McHenry is a family nurse practitioner who has cared for kids, adolescents, and young adults on the margins for over 15 years. Her medical practice is rooted in a harm-reduction, empowerment, and justice. She has served disenfranchised young people in Portland OR, NYC, Boston MA, and now Cincinnati Ohio, where she was born and raised. She has expertise in caring for LGBTQ populations, youth who are incarcerated, youth in foster care, homeless youth, youth struggling with mental illness and addiction, youth forced into survival sex and sex-trafficking, youth who are HIV+ or at risk of exposure to HIV, and youth living in poverty. She currently works in the community health department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital splitting her time between a school-based community health center, the lead poisoning clinic, and the foster care medical clinic. She is in the process of completing her psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner degree in hopes of better serving the needs of the youth in her care. She is a foster parent, a priest's wife, queer-identified, and hell-bent on making things better for all children. 

Cost:

$15 Reduced Rate - This program is sponsored by funding from Ohio Kinnect.