| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Community Change | |
|---|---|
| Global | |
| Interpersonal Practice | Elective (Host) |
| Mgmt & Leadership | |
| Policy & Political | |
| Program Evaluation | |
| Older Adults | |
| Children & Families |
Social workers and other service providers will gain an understanding what human trafficking is and how they can help victims of human trafficking that they encounter in their field of practice, with a particular emphasis on healthcare settings. We will explore the root causes of human trafficking, and our role in perpetuating and combating the underlying causes. We will take a critical perspective on what it means to help a victim of trafficking, as well-intentioned interventions can unwittingly cause the individual's arrest or deportation. Further, we will examine guiding principles for successful engagement with this population, including trauma-informed care, cultural awareness, and harm reduction. Finally, we will hear about local resources that providers can use if they suspect a client is a victim of human trafficking.
In this course you will have the opportunity to develop an idea to solve this real world human rights problem. Teams are organizationally the functioning unit of the course. Students will work collaboratively across disciplines to create tools to increase identification of victims in health care settings. Class sessions will focus heavily on prototyping potential solutions and collaboratively generating ideas and next steps. Students will also be expected to spend significant time outside of class working in teams to reach out to relevant stakeholders, conduct research, draft documents, and
otherwise work toward the creation of the intervention.
By the completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Articulate the role of their discipline in addressing the issue of human trafficking.
2. Define and understand the problem of human trafficking.
3. Describe methods to communicate across disciplines and with key stakeholders to discuss ways to identify and assist victims of human trafficking in the health care setting.
4. Develop the skills to work collaboratively to create innovative professional perspectives and practices that assist with the identification of victims of human trafficking in the health care setting.
5. Integrate strategies, tactics, and goals into their professional practice in order to identify and assist victims of human trafficking within the health care setting.
6. Reflect on the systemic factors that perpetuate and make it difficult to identify victims of human trafficking in the health care setting.
The course will have two phases. In phase one students will be split up into three multidisciplinary teams, and each team will present an innovation to a feedback panel. During the middle of the semester. After the panel one of the innovations will be chosen and the entire class will work together as a team to figure out how the chosen innovation could be implemented and will present both the idea and the implementation plan to a panel at the end of the semester. Ethical concerns around the potential innovation will be discussed as they come up. In this course, as in all the problem solving initiative courses, students are the leaders in advancing the course objectives. Course instructors will be team leaders rather than traditional professors delivering pre-established content. In light of all this, your vigorous participation this coming semester will be influential in shaping the particular outcomes of our course.
University of Michigan
School of Social Work
1080 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106