Using School-Based Health Programs to Prevent Human Trafficking: The Mount Sinai Experience

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; LGBTQidentification; 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.

The “Custrac Model”: Its Generic Practicality with a Twist in the Ghanaian Education

“…Cus et al (2021) argued from a different perspective that faculty strength and the managerial philosophy adopted by university management positively affect student satisfaction. Hilda et al (2021) found out that security, value for money, and courtesy of university staff define student satisfaction while Diaz et al (2021) discovered that convenience of location, prompt service, safety, and security, and friendliness of employees of the university are critically important. Buabeng-Andoh (2021) specified that employee attitude is likely to influence students' satisfaction.…”