Screening Tools
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
In addition to
universal education, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends these
screening tools.
Human Trafficking (HT)
Promising Practices
Health
centers are increasingly using innovative approaches to help their communities address
these often hidden social issues. Here are a few examples of the many promising
practices implemented by health centers. Thank you to all of the organizations
that shared their models. Please reach out to the contacts below to get more
information.
Asian Health Services, Oakland,
CA
- Provides a multi-pronged approach to addressing
commercial sexually exploited children and domestic minor sex trafficking. This
includes a youth program, a teen clinic, a HT-specific program for youth
(developed in collaboration with community-based organizations), and a
school-based health center.
- The teen clinic routinely and universally
screens for sexual exploitation and has implemented a reporting and referral protocol
for any youth identified with suspected or disclosed commercial sexual
exploitation.
- Conducts research, provides trainings, and is
engaged in policy development.
Contact: Dr. Kimberly Chang, Family Physician, Human Trafficking and Healthcare Policy Fellow
Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, Brockton,
MA
- Trained staff on universal education; Safety
Cards are placed in waiting and exam rooms and distributed by providers,
patient navigators, and case managers.
- Warm handoffs are made to an embedded behavioral
health clinician.
- Navigators and case managers make referrals to
community resources including the housing department, department of
transitional assistance, and local domestic violence counseling and resources
center.
- Police Department provides an officer at the
health center one day a week who is available for referrals.
- Implementing a social determinants of health
questionnaire that includes questions about IPV.
Contact: Maria
Cancel, Adult
Behavioral Health Integration Program Manager
CommuniCare Health Centers, Woodland,
CA
- Maintains a strong collaboration with a local IPV treatment
provider.
- Screens all new patients for trauma, including all new
clients entering services for behavioral health. For children accessing
specialty mental health, a tool is
used to identify commercially sexually exploited children. (This health
center piloted and helped to validate the tool’s effectiveness.)
- Trained health center leadership in trauma-informed care and
includes trauma-informed care in new hire orientation curriculum.
- Implemented a “Healer’s
Arts” program to support resiliency and address secondary trauma for
providers. The program includes a safe learning environment to explore values
of service, healing relationship, reverence for life, and compassionate care.
Contact: Sara Gavin, Director of
Behavioral Health for CommuniCare Health Centers
FamilyCare Health Centers, Scott
Depot, WV
This center observed a large increase
in IPV disclosures after implementing these practices.
- All medical providers are
trained in providing universal education
using informational Safety Cards from Futures Without Violence (please see Safety
Card link above).
- Individuals disclosing abuse are
offered immediate assistance with on-site integrated behavioral health team,
including therapists and social workers, who refer and collaborate with local
domestic violence shelters.
Contact: Kathryn
Adams, PsyD, Head
of Behavioral Health Department, Licensed Psychologist
Institute for Family Health, New York,
NY
- Implemented The
PurpLE (Purpose: Listen and Engage) Clinic, which offers a safe and
sensitive primary care home for people who have experienced sexual trauma,
including HT.
- Clinic runs several days a week with extended hours, staffed
by a family medicine physician. It offers comprehensive health services that
mirror health center services and utilizes extended visit lengths to develop
trust.
- Clinic was informed by collaborations with community-based
organizations, including local anti-trafficking, domestic violence, immigrant,
and LGBT-focused organizations, and with input from incarcerated sex
trafficking survivors.
Contact: Dr.
Anita Ravi, Founder,
Medical Director of the PurpLE Clinic, The Institute for Family Health
La
Clinica del Pueblo, Washington, DC
- Training entire staff on universal education
regarding gender-based violence and trauma-informed approach to managing all
clinical conditions.
- Uses an integrated care team that includes
provider, medical assistant, behavioral health clinician, and health educator;
making warm handoffs; and communicates through EHR.
- Health Center Community Health Action Department
provides health education, navigation to community-based resources including, a
peer-led, Community Gender-Based Violence Prevention program, legal services, and
behavioral health care; also provides care coordination.
- Provides
patient education materials and a weekend women’s group.
Contact:
Suyanna Linhales Barker, Senior
Director of Health Equity and Community Action
La
Maestra Community Health Centers, San Diego, CA
- Legal Advocacy and Social Services
department (LMLASS) provides education, assistance, and support to people who
face rights violations or who are survivors of crime, the majority of whom are
victims of domestic violence and trafficking.
- All clinic personnel at the health
centers are trained by LMLASS to recognize signs of domestic violence and
trafficking, maintain confidentiality and safety, and make sensitive, warm
handoffs to the LMLASS staff.
- Developed La Maestra Circle
of Care™ services to provide comprehensive, holistic, and patient-centered
services addressing social determinants of health.
Contact: Carmen G. Kcomt,
Director of the Legal Advocacy and
Social Services Department, International Human Trafficking program
Terminology
Intimate partner violence (IPV): physical, sexual, or psychological
harm by a current or former partner or spouse.
Human trafficking (HT): modern-day slavery and involves the
use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex
act.
Sex trafficking: the recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person
for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is
induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform
such act has not attained 18 years of age.
Labor trafficking: the recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services,
through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
Trauma-Informed Care
Model: According to SAMHSA, “A program,
organization, or system that is trauma-informed:
-
Realizes the widespread impact of trauma and
understands potential paths for recovery;
-
Recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and
others involved with the system;
-
Responds by fully integrating knowledge
about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and
- Seeks to actively resist re-traumatization."
|
Connect with HRSA
