Aftercare services US: Rebecca J. Macy
Name: Rebecca J. Macy PhD, ACSW, LCSW
Position: Associate Professor
Organisation: School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US
1. Can you tell us a little bit about your research interests?
My work focuses on developing and investigating programmes that prevent violence, as well as programmes that help violence survivors with recovery, resilience and their well-being.
These interests have led me to work on the issues of child maltreatment, partner violence, sexual assault, and now human trafficking.
Much of the work to prevent and respond to violence happens in community-based, non-profit organisations (also sometimes known as non-governmental organisations). To conduct my research, I often collaborate with the directors and staff members who work in these organisations. I find that the people who are working daily to end violence and help victims are wonderful research partners with creative ideas and innovative solutions.
2. What is the title of your recently completed research project on trafficking?
One of my first projects on human trafficking resulted in a publication entitled, "Aftercare Services for International Sex Trafficking Survivors: Informing U.S. Service and Program Development in an Emerging Practice Area."
The journal, Trauma, Violence and Abuse recently published this article. Readers can find the abstract and download the article here.
3. Can you give us a summary of the research?
Happy to do so! First, I want to mention my co-author for this study, Natalie Johns. Natalie was a graduate student at the UNC at Chapel Hill Schools of Public Health and Social Work when we started working on this project. I have to give Natalie credit for getting me interested in trafficking. Natalie was so passionate about the issue of sex trafficking that she helped to galvanize my own interest in and commitment to this important topic.
For this study, Natalie and I systematically reviewed and synthesised 20 documents that address the needs of and services for international survivors of sex trafficking into the United States. Though this work is aimed at human service providers in the United States, I think the findings could be helpful to people working globally with sex trafficking survivors.
Through this work, we found that sex trafficking survivors need a continuum of aftercare services to address their changing needs as they move from initial freedom to recovery and independence. From the research, we created a service delivery framework to help providers with developing aftercare programmes for survivors. We hope that this framework will be useful for human service providers who are trying to develop new programmes for trafficking survivors in their communities.
I thought that this study could be helpful because I'd been hearing from human service providers in North Carolina (where I live and work) that they are frequently asked to offer help to international sex trafficking survivors who have been rescued or escaped from traffickers. The providers also described the challenge of trying their best to help vulnerable trafficking survivors with little guidance about best practices. Providers want to help survivors to recover and live safe, independent lives. However, providers are not always certain about what services to offer because survivors' problems are so complex and traumas so severe.
4. What were the main issues or recommendations for practitioners that came out of this study?
Trafficking survivors needs' change from the time that they first escape to the time that they begin to recover to the time that they begin to establish independent lives. Aftercare programmes for sex trafficking survivors should include a continuum of services to address survivors' changing needs.
Aftercare programmes should also offer survivors a range of services, including basic necessities; secure, safe housing; physical and mental health care; legal and immigration advocacy; job and life skills training; and substance abuse services. In addition, aftercare programmes should always work to ensure survivors' safety and confidentiality, as well as to provide care in trauma-informed ways. (I'll discuss more about trauma-informed services in question #6.)
The research findings also show that health, human service, legal, and law enforcement professionals should be encouraged to participate in sex trafficking continuing educational trainings. In addition, sex trafficking information should be added to professional education curricula at colleges, schools and universities.
5. What were the main challenges in undertaking this study?
So far, limited research has been conducted on aftercare services for sex trafficking survivors, especially in the United States. In addition, aftercare providers have not always documented their service delivery practices. As a result, it was a challenge to find documents to review for this research.
One of my hopes from this project is that more people who are providing help and services to trafficking survivors will begin to document and evaluate their programmes.
I believe service evaluation is critically important. In my profession, there are examples of programmes that social workers delivered with the best of intentions but that actually made no difference in people's lives or worse, led to harm.
Trafficking survivors are such a vulnerable group. Thus, when we offer trafficking survivors support and services, we need to be certain that our programmes help survivors. We also need to be certain that our services do not harm. Further, we need to be certain that we are using the limited resources we have available for aftercare programmes wisely. Evaluation and research can provide information about what service types are most helpful for survivors. In turn, we can use that information to develop the best aftercare programmes possible.
6. Have you found any guidelines, frameworks or tools helpful in planning and carrying out your research?
I have found the trauma-informed service framework to be helpful in thinking about aftercare services for trafficking survivors. (The National Center for Trauma Informed Care at United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration has detailed information about this framework.) Trauma-informed services emphasize helping people with trauma recovery as part of any intervention or programme. For example, a programme might aim to help survivors with education and training. However, all of the education and training activities should be developed for people who have survived trauma to minimise any possibility of re-traumatising and re-victimising. The trauma-informed service framework appears to hold much promise for research on and services for sex trafficking survivors.
7. What gaps remain, where is more research needed?
As I stated above, we need more evaluation and research of aftercare programmes for sex trafficking survivors. I hope survivors, providers and researchers will all work together to determine what services are most helpful for survivors.
In addition, as I have been working on trafficking research issues, I am struck by how little research has been done on trafficking prevention. So I also hope that advocates, providers and researchers will work together to develop research about the prevention of global sex trafficking.
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