Public health professionals try to prevent problems such as disease, injury, and violence, from happening or recurring through implementing educational programs, recommending policies, administering services, and conducting research. They provide a variety of services in many different settings. Depending on the role they play, they may contribute to preventing and identifying human trafficking in a variety of ways, some more obvious than others, including:
- Health safety inspectors identifying potential indicators of trafficking in businesses or homes
- Community health workers noticing the spread of disease and infection among at-risk populations
- Researchers identifying methods for preventing trafficking that have worked in other communities
- Incidence of trafficking and surveillance
For more information, check out the following organizations and resources:
- HEAL Trafficking
- MHP Salud
- National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center
- Project Catalyst, Futures Without Violence
- SOAR for Public Health
More Public Health-Specific Resources:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). The public health system and the 10 essential public health services. https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/publichealthservices/essentialhealthservices.html
- Centers for Disease Control Prevention. (n.d.). The Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention. Retrieved April 17, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/publichealthissue/publichealthapproach.html
- Office on Trafficking in Persons. (2016). The power of framing human trafficking as a public health issue. Retrieved February 11, 2020, from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/resource/publichealthlens