Abstract
This article describes how school-based health centers can serve as human trafficking prevention sites.Setting:School-based health centers are available to all students attending a school and are often located in schools whose students have risk factors associated with human trafficking: those with a history of running away from home; unstable housing or homelessness; a history of childhood maltreatment or substance use; LGBTQ-identification; physical or developmental disabilities, including students who have Individualized Education Programs and need special education; gang involvement; and/or a history of involvement in child welfare or the juvenile justice system. The Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center provides a model of the types of service school clinics can offer, including integrated medical, sexual, and reproductive health, health education, and behavioral and mental health.Activities:Identifying young people with risk factors and addressing those factors in our clinics in a timely way can disrupt the progression to human trafficking. In addition, if young people who are trafficked are attending schools that have a clinic, their health needs, such as care for sexually transmitted infections and mental health issues, can be addressed on-site. Lastly, some people go to school to recruit students for human trafficking. By raising awareness and addressing human trafficking in the school, students can become aware of this issue and perhaps gain the ability to ask for help if they are approached or know of other students being recruited by a trafficker.Implications:The location of easily-accessible, adolescent-friendly, trafficking-aware services in schools can prevent, identify and intervene in human trafficking.
Highlights
Activities: Identifying young people with risk factors and addressing those factors in our clinics in a timely way can disrupt the progression to human trafficking
School-based health centers (SBHCs) are clinics that are located within school buildings to increase
The majority are located in the 17 states that directly provide school-based health center (SBHC) funding, half operated by Federally Qualified Health Centers and about a quarter operated by hospital systems [1]
Summary
School-based health centers (SBHCs) are clinics that are located within school buildings to increase. The majority are located in the 17 states that directly provide SBHC funding, half operated by Federally Qualified Health Centers and about a quarter operated by hospital systems [1]. With the support of the New York State and New York City Departments of Health the program grew, and MSAHC operates SBHCs inside six Manhattan school buildings enrolling over 11,000 students. Entitlement coordinators at the MSAHC actively assist young people and their families in obtaining insurance coverage, providing them with increased access to additional sources of care and enabling the program to generate muchneeded income for services rendered at the SBHCs
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