Astrid Heppenstall Heger
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Astrid Heppenstall Heger is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the USC
Keck School of Medicine The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California teaches and trains physicians, biomedical scientists and other healthcare professionals, conducts medical research, and treats patients. Founded in 1885, it is the second oldest ...
and the founder and Executive Director of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) at
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, also known as County/USC, or by the abbreviation LAC+USC (and sometimes still referred to by its former name Los Angeles County General), is a 600-bed public teaching hospital located at 2051 Marengo Street in ...
in
East Los Angeles East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...
. Heger has both a bachelor's degree and an M.D. from the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
.


Biography

In 1984, Heger founded the Center for the Vulnerable Child (CVC) for the evaluation of child abuse. This was the first medically based Child Advocacy Center in the world and currently evaluates over 10,000 child abuse and child sexual assault victims every year. This model program has been replicated in hundreds of programs around the world. Renamed the Violence Intervention Program (VIP), Heger established the first of its kind, "one stop shop" community Family Advocacy Center, offering medical, mental health, protective, legal and social services to victims of family violence and sexual assault throughout Los Angeles County. With increasing pressure from law enforcement and social services to answer the need for improved services for adolescents and adults, in 1995 the program added interventions for sexual assault and domestic violence. Today, the VIP also serves over 4000 victims of elder and dependent adult abuse. Most recently Heger has implemented a model "HUB" program with services for children at risk for or already in foster care. This center incorporates 24/7 forensic and medical assessments with an ongoing
medical home The medical home, also known as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH), is a team-based health care delivery model led by a health care provider to provide comprehensive and continuous medical care to patients with a goal to obtain maximal heal ...
with built-in mental health services and support services that include dental care, plastic surgery, mentoring and tutoring. Over the past two years the VIP has built and renovated over creating the S. Mark Taper Family Advocacy Center and the Santana House as a campus of services for children and families impacted by violence. This expanded space made it possible to expand HUB services and the creation of the Los Angeles County Elder Abuse Forensic Center. In addition to her work providing medical and forensic interventions to children and adolescents impacted by family and sexual violence, Heger serves as a consultant to the Los Angeles County Coroner in cases involving child death or sexual assault in all ages. She was an expert witness at the
McMartin preschool trial The McMartin preschool trial was a day care sexual abuse case in the 1980s, prosecuted by the Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were charged with hu ...
. Journalist John Earl believes that Heger's findings were based on unsubstantiated medical histories. Critics have alleged that the questioners asked the children
leading question In common law systems that rely on testimony by witnesses, a leading question is a question that suggests a particular answer and contains information the examiner is looking to have confirmed. The use of leading questions in court to elicit test ...
s, repetitively, which, it is said,Fischer, Mary, "A Case of Dominoes?" Los Angeles Magazine, September 25, 1989, p. 132 always yields positive responses from young children, making it impossible to know what the child actually experienced. Others believe that the questioning itself may have led to false-memory syndrome among the children who were questioned. Ultimately only 41 of the original 360 children testified during the grand jury and pre-trial hearings, and less than a dozen testified during the actual trial. One of the children recanted in 2005.


Publications

*''Evaluation of the Sexually Abused Child: A Medical Textbook and Photographic Atlas''.


References


External links


Astrid Heppenstall Heger
at Education Update
Astrid Heppenstall Heger
at Violence Intervention Program *
Astrid Heppenstall Heger
at
Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heger, Astrid Heppenstall American pediatricians Women pediatricians Keck School of Medicine of USC alumni University of Southern California faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people)