Health Care Providers' Training Needs Related to Human Trafficking: Maximizing the Opportunity to Effectively Screen and Intervene

Human trafficking is a complex and multifaceted problem that takes the form of economic, physical and sexual exploitation of people, both adults and children, who are reduced to simple products for commerce. Human trafficking in the United States also has both a domestic and an international aspect. Health care providers are in a unique position to screen for victims of trafficking and may provide important medical and psychological care for victims while in captivity and thereafter. Trafficked persons are likely to suffer a wide spectrum of health risks that reflect the unique circumstances and experiences in a trafficked victim’s life. Although trafficked victims typically have experienced inadequate medical care, once contact is made by the victim with the health care professionals, the opportunity then exists to identify, treat, and assist such victims. The range of services and supports required to appropriately respond to human trafficking victims once identified is broad and typically goes beyond just what is immediately provided by the health care professional and includes safe housing, legal advice, income support, and, for international victims, immigration status related issues. An informed and responsive community is necessary to serve both the international and domestic victims of human trafficking, and needs assessments demonstrated a number of barriers that hindered the delivery of effective services to human trafficking victims. One of the consistent needs identified to combat these barriers was enhanced training among all professionals who might come in contact with human trafficking victims. We highlight the efforts of the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition (HRRC), a local grassroots non-profit organization whose mission focuses on raising awareness of human trafficking in the Greater Houston Metropolitan area. HRRC responded to the consistent recommendation from various community needs assessments for additional training of front line professionals who would have the opportunity to identify human trafficking victims and supported the design and pilot testing of a health professions training program around human trafficking. Dissemination of this type of training along with careful evaluation and continued refinement will be one way for health care professionals to engage in a positive manner with human trafficking victims.

West African Migrants in Spain: Human Factors and Emerging International Policy. ACES Working Paper No. 6, Fall 2008

This paper concerns itself with the recent phenomenon of West Africans leaving the African continent and seeking work in Spain. By the year 2003, a barely noticeable blip on the screen of the age-old phenomenon that is migration became a conspicuous trend. Depending on one's perspective this trend is either a natural flow of people from one region to another, or it is an alarming turn of events that needs immediate global attention. However, when it involves significant loss of life - as does the sea journey of the poorest aspirants - surely all who ponder the migrant question would agree that this qualifies as a crisis. The next question becomes, then, is it best to focus on minimizing the risks or to focus on deterring the would-be migrants at the onset of their journey? This question and its possible answer are further nuanced by whether those determined to leave receive incentives for choosing to stay at home or whether government officials and others who respond to the crisis in both sending and receiving countries practice a forceful type of deterrent that merely halts the process of migration but does not tackle the issue of why the person chose to leave in the first place.

Scenes in and around the Capital (Rakuchu-rajugai zu), left screen

Painting, Japanese, Edo; 5 ft. 1 29/64 in.x 11 ft. 6 21/32 in.; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper

Scenes in and around the Capital (Rakuchu-rajugai zu), right screen

Painting, Japanese, Edo; 5 ft. 1 29/64 in. 1 ft. 1 55/64 in.; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper

Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges), left screen

Ogata Korin; 5 ft. 10 33/64 in.x 12 ft. 2 17/64 in.; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink and color on gold leaf on paper

Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges), right screen

Ogata Korin; 5 ft. 10 33/64 in.x 12 ft. 2 17/64 in.; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink and color on gold leaf on paper

Landscapes with the Chinese Literati Su Shi and Tao Qian, right screen

Nagasawa Rosetsu; 5 ft. 7 41/64 in.x 12 ft. 2 47/64 in.; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink on gold leaf paper

Landscapes with the Chinese Literati Su Shi and Tao Qian, left screen

Nagasawa Rosetsu; 5 ft. 7 41/64 in.x 12 ft. 2 47/64 in.; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink on gold leaf paper

Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges), left screen: upper left

Ogata Korin; one of a pair of six-fold screens, ink and color on gold leaf on paper

Orchid Pavilion Gathering, right screen, panels 4-6

Ikeno Taiga; H: 5 ft. 3 17/64 in.; one of a pair of 6-fold screens, ink and color on paper

Orchid Pavilion Gathering, right screen, panels 1-3

Ikeno Taiga; H: 5 ft. 3 17/64 in.; one of a pair of 6-fold screens, ink and color on paper

Orchid Pavilion Gathering, right screen

Ikeno Taiga; 5 ft. 3 17/64 in.x 11 ft. 8 5/32 in.; one of a pair of 6-fold screens, ink and color on paper

Orchid Pavilion Gathering, right screen, panels 1-2

Ikeno Taiga; H: 5 ft. 3 17/64 in.; one of a pair of 6-fold screens, ink and color on paper

Orchid Pavilion Gathering, right screen, panel 2: detail

Ikeno Taiga; one of a pair of 6-fold screens, ink and color on paper

Orchid Pavilion Gathering, right screen, right screen, panel 2: Wang and friends in pavilion

Ikeno Taiga; one of a pair of 6-fold screens, ink and color on paper