Dr. Astrid Heppenstall Heger is the Executive Director of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP), located at the Los Angeles County (LAC) + University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center, where she is also a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics. In 1984, she 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 20,000 child abuse and child sexual assault victims every year. Dr. Heger is the pre-eminent expert in the field of child sexual abuse and assault and the author of numerous articles in this field, as well as the definitive textbook “Evaluation of the Sexually Abused Child,” now in its second edition.

En 1995, estableció el primero de su tipo, el Centro comunitario de defensa familiar de “ventanilla única”, que ofrece servicios médicos, de salud mental, de protección, legales y sociales a las víctimas de violencia familiar y agresión sexual en todo el condado de Los Ángeles. En 1999, el Dr. Heger estableció un Equipo de Protección de Adultos y un Centro Forense de Abuso de Ancianos para brindar servicio directo a ancianos de alto riesgo y adultos dependientes, pero también para ayudar a los profesionales sociales, legales, médicos y de salud mental encargados de la protección de los más vulnerables. población. Además de los servicios para los más jóvenes y los mayores, VIP continúa brindando servicios las 24 horas del día, los 7 días de la semana a las víctimas de agresión sexual y violencia doméstica.

Starting in 2004, Dr. Heger implemented a model “HUB” program with services for children at risk for or already in foster care. This clinical program incorporates 24/7 forensic and medical assessments with an ongoing medical home with built-in mental health services as well as support services that include dental care, plastic surgery, mentoring and tutoring. As more and more children were evaluated prior to foster place, it became clear that there needed to be a “soft” landing for these children where they would receive medical and mental health services as well as food, clothing, a bath and a place to sleep and play. The “Children’s Welcome Center” (children age 0-12) and the companion center the “Youth Welcome Center” have changed the landscape of how children enter foster care and greatly improved both placement rates and permanency of placements.




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