We are giving them the food, clothes and shelter necessary to survive, but what they really need is Care.
Human Trafficking is a scourge on our society and many organizations, agencies and departments throughout Texas are joining together to fight this devastating crime and the after-effects on its victims. An official of the Center of Hope in El Paso saw another need, Care. Survivors of human trafficking across the country are brought to homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and other types of housing but not all of them were able to function in these shelters. Fear, PTSD, withdrawal, triggering, acting-out, are all behaviors associated with the trauma that accompanies the trafficking experience and place the survivors in a position to be victimized again.
The dedicated folks at Center of Hope realized that assigning a trained caregiver specifically to a rescued human trafficking survivor can make all the difference in their recovery and re-integration into society. Outreach Health Services is able to provide trained caregivers to stay with these survivors, helping them with simple things like preparing meals, running errands and providing much needed socialization. Listening, laundry, crying, cooking, laughing, planning, all of these are the things that a caregiver can do with a young woman who has been traumatized to help her heal and move into a productive life again.
When listening to the folks at Center of Hope talk about the specialized needs of their clients, I saw a parallel to the Home Care business that I work in on a daily basis, said Debra Ruz of Outreach Health Services. What these girls need is care and we can provide it. Center of Hope realizes that a victim has needs beyond food and shelter. So when a need for this level of service is identified, an order for a Caregiver is placed and funded from the Center of Hope budget.
This fund pays for specialized services a survivor might need for such things as habilitation, tattoo removal, haircuts and life skills training. We realized that for some survivors the caregiving aspect is the most basic and impactful type of direct service a person can receive, said Cynthia Horton, the director of Center for Hope. I started to say it's surprising what a little compassionate care can do to help a person heal, said Debra Ruz from Outreach, but actually, it's not really a surprise, didn't we already know that?
Outreach Health Services is a leading provider of health care services and support to individuals, families and the health care community. Providing home health, transition care, family and nutritional health, community care and personal emergency services across the state of Texas for over 35 years, Outreach is proud to serve close over 1,000 El Pasoans each month.