While health care providers are in a unique position to be able to respond to the needs of trafficking victims, they often do not have the training necessary for appropriate identification and response (Pardee, Munro-Kramer, Bigelow, & Dahlem, 2016). Studies surrounding the knowledge of health care providers in rural areas are scant (Cole & Sprang, 2015). The main goal of this research was to provide empirically-grounded data about knowledge and needs of key health care professionals in terms of identification and response to human trafficking victims/survivors in a frontier/rural state. A convenience sample of 404 health care professionals (including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapist, dentists, social workers, health sciences faculty, and other medical professionals) were recruited to complete an anonymous survey. Descriptive analyses were conducted using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-24). Key findings include an increased knowledge of: providers’ professional preparation around human trafficking; their overall awareness of trafficking and specific knowledge of trafficking policies and confidence to respond; providers’ sense of responsibility to engage in identification of human trafficking as a routine element of practice; providers’ use of formalized protocols in the practice setting and knowledge of community resources, and; needs for the improvement of a coordinated statewide trafficking response. Such findings and other results will be presented and translated into both overall recommendations for improving the knowledge of and response of health care professionals to human trafficking in the state, as well as the role of social workers in ensuring collaborative research, practice, and advocacy.
Dr. Neely Mahapatra is an Associate Professor in the Division of Social Work at University of Wyoming, Laramie. Her research interests are to collaborate and develop best practices and address the needs of victims/survivors of human trafficking in frontier Wyoming and in the U.S.
Dr. Kirsten Havig is a visiting research specialist at the Children and Family Research Center, School of Social Work at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include trauma and posttraumatic growth; social welfare policy and practice, with an emphasis on child welfare; and social work education.