Trafficking Healthcare Resources and Intra-disciplinary Victim Services and Education (THRIVE) Clinic: A Multidisciplinary One-stop Shop Model of Healthcare for Survivors of Human Trafficking
Author: George, Joshua; Malik, Sana; Symes, Stephen; Caralis, Panagiota; Newport, D. Jeffrey; Godur, Anastasia; Mills, Grechen; Karmin, Ira; Menon, Blaine & Potter, JoNell
Abstract: The THRIVE Clinic provides medical/psychiatric care for human trafficking survivors in Miami. Designed to address the comprehensive healthcare needs of this unique population, the clinic’s goal is to establish stable and consistent healthcare that is respectful, comprehensive, and sensitive to survivor needs. The THRIVE Clinic is a patient-centered “one-stop shop” model offering multidisciplinary services in a single location. Due to survivors’ chronic multiple morbidities, the model includes primary care, psychiatric, obstetrics/gynecology, and ancillary services. Key components include consistent multidisciplinary professionals, streamlined intake procedures to reduce redundancy of patient histories often painful to repeat, and assistance with securing health insurance. To date, the majority of survivors seen are female, age at first visit is 28.7 years, with 53% reporting childhood sexual abuse and many reporting a history of physical abuse. All survivors left their trafficking encounters as adults, and were trafficked for an average duration of 5.1 years. Multiple chronic medical and psychiatric comorbidities include PTSD, hepatitis C, pelvic pain, major depressive disorder, and chronic headaches. A comprehensive, multidisciplinary, “one-stop shop” model of healthcare for survivors of human trafficking provides patient-centered services in an environment that fosters compassion, trust, support and stability. Reducing the burden on survivors of human trafficking to navigate complicated health systems and providing consistency among providers is an essential component to success.
Keywords: healthcare, health education, health promotion, human trafficking