#trafficked persons

Based on the figure above, which is found in the Zimmerman et al., 2011 article that I referenced a lot in my last (super sad and heavy) post, it is important to focus on the knowledge that we already have when thinking about and planning for the future of health care for survivors of human trafficking.

Public health organizations tend to "reinvent the wheel" when it comes to performing multiple needs assessments or conducting preliminary surveys to really 'understand the needs of a community'.

In many ways, this mindset of starting anew every time an NGO wants to start a program within a certain community is incredibly wasteful if there is already sufficient data from that community.  Not only is it a waste of resources (that $$, y'all!), but manpower and valuable time that the community might not have to waste!

I therefore really like the above figure and sentiment presented by Zimmerman and her colleagues:

In order to strategize for the development of health care services that are tailored to the needs of trafficked persons, it is important to build upon the knowledge and programs that exist for other vulnerable and 'invisible' populations, such as:

migrant laborers

victims and survivors of torture or abuse (ex: domestic violence)

refugee populations and asylum seekers

Trafficked persons share a few key characteristics with the above populations, in general:

highly mobile -- oftentimes individuals are not kept in just one location, but are moved around in order to avoid detection

socially marginalized -- think of our opinions of sex workers who are not victims of trafficking

unauthorized legal status -- many victims have their legal documents taken from them to make them even more vulnerable and dependent upon the trafficking agents

and the most crucial one for this post:

difficulty accessing health care services

Specialized health interventions that have been developed for other hard-to-reach populations often use survivor-focused, victim-centered, and survivor-to-survivor methods for establishing rapport with individuals who are victims of abuse or whom have experienced trauma [2].

Additionally, holistic programs that focus on the wellbeing of the entire person -- physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, psychological, and economic wellbeing and stability -- are often promoted as the most effective and appropriate types of programs for vulnerable groups [2].

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The idea of building upon existing knowledge, programs, and tools is relevant to other fields besides public health and international development. I'm sure you can come up with many ideas where re-doing the same action over and over is wasteful and doesn't allow for much progress, either forward or backward.

So, this is my little bit of ramble for tonight's post. I really hope that it got the wheels turning in your mind about other ways to think about health care for trafficked persons, as well as other vulnerable groups.

Food for thought is always good :)

-- Sammy

1. Zimmerman, C., Hossain, M., & Watts, C. (2011). Human trafficking and health: a conceptual model to inform policy, intervention and research. Soc Sci Med, 73(2), 327-335.