Training for Police Officers and Professionals

Gender, Body and Nursing

Medical Knowledge, Body and Society

 

Cepia, in partnership with the Rio de Janeiro Special Subcommittee on Women's Public Safety and Citizenship and Public Safety Institute has offered, the course 'Training for Police Officers and Professionals Responsible for Assisting Women Who are Victims of Violence'. The course addresses issues of domestic and sexual violence and seeks to improve the skills of these professionals in assisting women who are victims of violence.

The course took place at the Rio de Janeiro State Civil Police Academy and in CEDIM (State Women's Right Counsel) and was intended for police officers, health professionals and workers from the Safety Office. Leila Linhares Barsted is the general coordinator of the course, while Cecília Soares Teixeira and Telma Rosenail are the local coordinator.

The course allowed an articulation between the public safety and health fields, especially among the services responsible for attending women victim of sexual violence. Professors from various fields, but especially law and health professionals, participated in the course.

In the year 2000 Cepia will offer this course to police officers working in the project 'Delegacia Legal', developed by the Public Safety Office of Rio de Janeiro.
Cepia has also produced in partnership with Cedim an updated version of the booklet 'Violence Against Women - a guide for guidance and support' which contains helpful addresses for women and professionals and will be distributed in the course along with other material.

In the year 2002, Cepia and the State Women’s Right Office – CEDIM will be monitoring the process of capacity building of police officers of the north and northeast DEAM, which will use the methodology developed by Cepia.

 

The first classes of the course Gender, Body and Nursing took place from March 10th to June 9th of 1999 at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). This course was the result of a partnership between Cepia and UERJ.

This course was coordinated by Jacqueline Pitanguy,Cepia director and sociologist, by Ruth Mesquita, nurse and Cepia assistant, and by the nurses and professors of the Maternal-Infant Department of the Jane Progianti school. The lectures were a multidisciplinary group that includeed from anthropologists to lawyers.

The course was divided into three units, each with 30 hours. The first unit presented the topics: profisionalization of nurses, developing nursing schools and nursing and globalization - perspectives for the 21st century. Ethics, bio-ethics and human rights are the topics of the second unit. The third unit discusses sexuality, gender and power, reproductive health public policies, and social movements. At the end of each unit the students attend course evaluation seminars.

Since 1996 Cepia in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Medical School has been offering the course 'Medical Knowledge, Body and Society'. With lectures invited from other higher education institutions, nonacademic entities and NGOs, the course discusses the role of social class, gender, race, political power and citizenship in the acquisition of knowledge in medicine.

'Medical Knowledge, Body and Society' is coordinated by Cepia Director Jacqueline Pitanguy and by the associate professor of the Psychiatry and Legal Medicine department at UFRJ, Alicia Navarro.

This course was able to conciliate the desire of the Medical School Faculty to make its curriculum more diverse and Cepia's desire to engage health professionals so as to sensitize them about issues of gender. Initially offered as an extension of the curriculum the course is today part of the elective disciplines. It is composed of four units: scientific method; the make up of medical knowledge; medicine, society and body; and sexuality and medical knowledge. Each unit has three to four classes and a seminar for reflection about the unit and evaluation.