Abstract
Human trafficking is a growing threat worldwide that has resulted in numerous national and state sponsored programs to aid victims. Human trafficking leads to adverse health outcomes like anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks, mood and behavior changes, emotional and spiritual trauma, and increased drug, alcohol, and sexual abuse. This not only affects the victims but also victims’ family members, especially children, creating an environment of constant stress. This project is targeted at assisting mothers with a history of human trafficking alongside family members, specifically their children. The purpose of this project is to identify, evaluate, support, and teach participants to cope with and overcome their traumatic events and acknowledge the impact it has on their children. The project will involve three trials at specific sites across the country - each site will have a team consisting of the project coordinator, psychiatrist, 2 psychologists, 2 social workers, 4 advocates, and 8 volunteers located in Miami, Tampa, and Orlando with 20 to 30 participants each. The project will be assessed on the ability of the participants to learn new coping strategies and understand the impact it has on their health and their children's health with regards to childhood adverse experiences. The goal of the project will be to reduce negative outcomes in several defined categories, which will be evaluated through numerical scoring throughout the program.
Statement of Need
An estimated 15,000 to 50,000 individuals are trafficked annually in the US. Florida has the third highest human trafficking cases with 73% involving sex, 13% involving labor, and 14% involving both sex and labor (NHTH, 2022). Human trafficking is the unlawful transporting of people to gain from their services, either labor or sexual exploitation (Understanding trauma, 2021). Victims develop mental health problems along with substance abuse, which creates a deeply negative impact on their families leading to adverse childhood experiences (Stewart, 2016). Trafficking affects a person’s mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing at high levels and multiple layers (Understanding trauma, 2021). Victims usually have a complex history of multiple traumatic events including sexual abuse, physical abuse, bullying, and violence. The effects of the trauma can be immediate or may occur later with a delayed onset. Victims usually have difficulty maintain relationships, stress coping, cognitive process managing including memory and attention, controlling behavior and emotions, and suffer from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and panic attacks (Understanding trauma, 2021).
Victims of human traffic are usually overprotective, controlling, and demanding of their children that causes children to be in a constant situation of stress and anxiety (Stewart, 2016). Many victims question their ability to be good mothers. When mothers are overprotective, it hinders the development of autonomy and increases the risk of anxiety and separation problems (Fowler et al., 2022). During moments of intense sadness, mothers report feeling disconnected from the emotional state of their children, resulting in a decrease in their ability to respond to their children’s emotional needs (Fowler et al., 2022). A distinct lack of targeted screening and counseling programs for victims of trafficking requires a comprehensive program that will seek to prevent propagation of adverse events.
Public Health Framework
The primary objective of public health is to implement securities at primary, secondary and tertiary levels to fight a health crisis from the past present and future (Kisling et al., 2022 ). The public health framework utilized in this project will be at all three levels of prevention to target mothers that have been victims to overcome their trauma and discuss how it may impact their children to help prevent ACEs. While primary prevention may not be possible with regards to childhood adverse experiences in those situations where such trauma has already been inflicted, it will be implemented to prevent expectant mothers or mothers whose children do not have adverse childhood experiences (as determined by qualified professionals): prevention will occur by connecting victims with community resources to improve economic status with stable jobs and reducing mental health burden through treatments. Secondary prevention will be through screening their children for any ACEs. Tertiary prevention will include working with those that have already experienced ACEs, as determined through family counseling sessions, and connecting those affected with community resources to ensure the children attain proper social and intellectual milestones as determined by the national pediatric association (Misirliyan et al., 2023).
Levels of Social Ecological Model
The social ecological model that will be used is the CDC model consisting of individual, relationship, community, and societal components (SAMHSA, 2014). At the individual level, the project will identify mothers with a history of abuse through trafficking. The mothers will be taught skills to cope with their anxiety and PTSD with the goal of improving the home environment. This will translate to improved relationships among the family and specifically parent-child relationships to help reduce/prevent ACEs. At the relationship level, families will be counseled, and discussions taken place to identify stressful factors that may be impacting their children and ways they can improve upon these factors to reduce trauma. The community level would include implementing a safe space where victims and their children can interact and have group therapy. At the societal level, the project members would work towards change and awareness by working with local and federal government officials to have safeguards put in place to prevent trafficking.
Trauma-Informed Principles Grant Will Utilize
The grant will utilize the trauma informed principles of safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, and empowerment with voice and choice (SAMHSA, 2014). The victims along with the staff will be in a safe nonjudgmental environment at the center during all sessions including group therapy. The project will work to build trust between its staff and the victims along with their families to be transparent in order to develop a bond that promotes a safe environment to open up about ones mental and physical state of mind. The project will also have advocates (past victims) that will promote peer support through group therapy and individual sessions. The project will only Work toward collaboration and mutual respect by involving organizations including their staff and the victims along with their families working together to formulate a plan of action for recovery and growth from self-realization. The project will give victims a platform to have a voice and a choice on how to proceed in their journey for self-improvement and healing. It will empower them to deal with daily life obstacles while limiting stress and anxiety and considering how it affects the people around them.
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NHTH. Florida. National Human Trafficking Hotline. (2022). https://humantraffickinghotlin...cs/florida#year-2021
Misirliyan SS, Boehning AP, Shah M. Development Milestones. (2023). StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557518/
SAMHSA. (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://store.samhsa.gov/sites.../priv/sma14-4884.pdf
Stewart, M. (2016). Family and human trafficking. https://wucwo.org/index.php/en...cking-and-the-family
Understanding trauma - who we are | the center. Human Trafficking Capacity Building Center. (2021). https://htcbc.ovc.ojp.gov/site...ding_Trauma_508c.pdf
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