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Trauma-Informed Care for the Pediatric Survivor of Exploitation and Trafficking
Andrea Repine, MSN, APRN, CPNP; Allison Dovi, PhD; Jennifer Macaulay, MSW; Stephanie A. Deutsch, MD, FAAP, MS
INTRODUCTION
modern-day slavery.1
to quantify, every year in the United States, it is estimated that thousands
of adults, adolescents, and children and commercial sexual exploitation
through prostitution, pornography,
or survival sex.2 Exploited, sex- be physically forced into providing 3 emotional force, false promises of “love,” and psychological or emotionally abusive and manipulative tactics.4-8
A quarter of HT survivors are children.3 Many child and adolescent survivors are vulnerability; in 2017, an estimated one out of seven runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited survivor, 88% of whom were in the care of social services or foster care.3 Children
The trafficking and exploitation of children and adolescents in epidemic proportions represents a national public health issue warranting urgent attention and action, including establishment of best practices for care of human trafficking (HT) survivors. Efforts to combat HT have been limited by barriers to detection and survivor identification related to limited disclosures, diverse care presentations, and lack of clinician training and education despite many survivors interfacing with the health care system routinely. Many HT survivors have experienced significant and emotionally traumatizing abuse; therefore, a trauma-informed care (TIC) approach utilizing the expertise of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) is recommended to address the multidimensional medical and mental health, psychosocial, and legal needs of the survivor. In this review, we provide an overview of HT epidemiology, discuss challenges to detection, common red flag presentations, the rationale for and application of a TIC approach, and explore challenges to establishment and implementation of best practices for care of HT survivors.
Keywords: human trafficking, multidisciplinary team, trauma-informed care
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Del Med J | January/February 2021 | Vol. 93 | No. 1
Abstract
