Home Recognizing and Preventing Youth Violence Parent Education Tip Cards

PARENT EDUCATION TIP CARDS

The Medical Society's tip cards were developed through a process which included practicing physicians' and other professionals' input at every stage, along with parent involvement through professionally run focus groups. Studies performed on prototype cards demonstrated their effectiveness, and over 500,000 cards have been distributed throughout the United States and foreign countries. We hope that dissemination of knowledge about the risk and protective factors and about available resources will make a difference in the lives of our patients.

This series of ten parent education "tip cards" is designed to help physicians educate their patients (and the parents of pediatric age patients) about youth and teen violence prevention.

To download a copy of each tip card, click on the links below:

For toddlers:
Raise Your Child with Praise (.pdf, 242 kb)
Time Out!  (.pdf, 44 kb)

For school-age children:
Bullying (.pdf, 70 kb)

For teens:
Street Violence (.pdf, 59 kb)
Teen Dating Violence - What Parents Need to Know (.pdf, 44 kb)

For all ages:
When Children Witness Violence In the Home (.pdf, 215 kb)
Pulling the Plug on TV Violence (.pdf, 34 kb)
Some Myths and Facts About Violence  (.pdf, 122 kb)
Protecting Your Child From Sexual Abuse (.pdf, 84k)
Protecting Your Child From Gun Injury (.pdf, 118k)

(Requires free Adobe Reader download)

To order cards, please call 800-843-6356.

The tip cards originated at The Floating Hospital for Children and New England Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine and were developed by the Massachusetts Medical Society's Committee on Violence. The tip cards represent the latest in a series of efforts by the Massachusetts Medical Society to promote health by providing concise and useful primary and secondary prevention-oriented patient education materials to physicians.

In creating these cards, input was received from experts in the topic areas of each card, practicing physicians, and parents. Each card, written at literacy level appropriate to the general public, is brief, practical and prevention-focused.

The tip cards are specifically designed with sensitivity to the time issues that physicians face when seeing patients in the office setting. They facilitate compliance with HEDIS guidelines in the areas of anticipatory guidance and adolescent counselingand with recent policy statements by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Most of the cards can be used simply by having the physician or other health care professional recommend the approach to the parent, hand out the card, and suggest appropriate follow-up. However,it is suggested that the card concerning children who witness domestic violence be left in the exam room, or other discrete location so that concerned parents may take the information without embarrassment.

This project is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics. 

For more information about this project, contact the Massachusetts Medical Society, Department of Public Health and Education at 1-800-322-2303, ext. 7373.