Medical Safe Haven Program for Survivors of Human Trafficking

The (MSH) program creates a safe space, a medical home where providers can offer ongoing care for people who have experienced human trafficking. MSH’s evidence-based care model offers survivors integrated primary and mental health care. An embedded patient advocate makes linkages with local service providers to ensure each survivor receives a full range of wrap-around services including interpretation, transportation, case management, and peer support. Under this project, Dignity Health, part of CommonSpirit Health, will implement the Medical Safe Haven project in three OJP priority areas, providing integrated medical and behavioral health care for 145 victims of sex and/or labor trafficking over a three-year project period. Additional project objectives include: training local partners on a trauma-informed approach to identify people experiencing trafficking and refer them for care, and will provide robust specialized training to healthcare teams at each site; forging new partnerships with community and faith-based organizations, criminal justice professionals, and government agencies, and will link patients with legal, education, employment, reunification, housing and other support services; and providing continuous quality improvement and jointly lead in the development of best practices with other survivor clinics across the country based on monthly reporting and quarterly evaluation of the data. Dignity Health launched the MSH in Sacramento in 2016 and, with OVC FY 2018 funding, expanded to Redding and Los Angeles. With this current grant funding, Dignity Health will further strengthen services in Los Angeles and expand to three additional areas in California: Santa Maria and San Francisco, drawing program participants primarily from rural communities, high-poverty areas and Qualified Opportunity Zones. The three new MSH sites will provide a path to stability and healing for victims of labor and sex trafficking including males and females, and people of all ethnicities, as well as non-English speakers, individuals who identify as LGBTQ+, foster and justice involved youth, individuals who lack housing, persons with a disability, and people of all ages.