ABSTRACT
Victims of childhood sexual abuse are at an increased risk for a multitude of mental health conditions. While many children exhibit concerning behavioral changes following abuse, there is often a delay in identification and implementation of psychiatric services, resulting in worsening mental and physical health outcomes for victims. This case series aims to demonstrate the importance of multidisciplinary victim-centered and trauma-focused treatment including proactive psychiatric care. The review presents three cases of child victims of sexual abuse who received psychiatric care after their initial presentation to the Puerto Rico Health Justice Center (PRHJC). As evidenced by the following cases and extant literature, child victims of sexual abuse have an increased risk of severe mental health disorders. This indicates the importance of recognizing and understanding behavioral warning signs of childhood sexual abuse and the importance of psychiatric care as early as possible following disclosure.
ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: Social, medical, psychological and economic problems are often associated to teen pregnancy. This is a reality worldwide; Puerto Rico is not an exception, documented in statistics and previous research projects. There are many risks associated with pregnancies among adolescents, including increased maternal morbidity and infant morbidity. In Puerto Rico, the adolescent repeat births reed are 22% for a second child and 6% for a third child. Repeated teen pregnancy has a higher than expected incidence; therefore the investigation of psychosocial factors associated with failure to use contraception is needed,especially to address the intervention at clinics with this population of different needs, mainly when these patients with repeated teen pregnancies have been through the health care system already. METHODOLOGY: The project is a cross sectional survey study, seventy articipants between 12-19 years of age who attended obstetrics or postpartum clinics at an adult University Hospital. A self-administered questionnaire included some psychosocial factors that have been associated withthe failure to use contraceptives as well as demographics tion, education, socioeconomic status and support system. RESULTS: Their partner's age ranged from 15 to 38 years of age. Most participants lived with their partner. Their main activity at the time of the study was housework. Most had left school beforebecoming pregnant and received government help. Of all participants, a small number was legally married. The lack of use of contraceptive was found to be significantly associated to partner (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The lack of contraceptive use is a key factor in adolescent pregnancy. It is expected that this data can be helpful for documentation and intervention measurements something canbe done at an educational level, family planning and medical care.
