Providing trauma-informed care to women exiting prostitution: assessing programmatic responses to severe trauma

ABSTRACT

Women in prostitution (WIP) experience extremely high levels of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and are significantly more likely to experience mental health issues and trauma than the general population. Research that addresses the mental health needs of WIP emphasizes treating trauma, both trauma that predated entry into prostitution and trauma experienced during prostitution. Very little research is available on services for WIP, thus providers have limited guidance on providing effective services, particularly trauma-informed care. Although programs exist exclusively to assist women leaving prostitution, little is known about services they offer or if services are trauma-informed. Given this dearth, this study consisted of exploratory program evaluations of eight agencies that focus primarily on serving WIP to understand how trauma is addressed in their services.

KEYWORDS:

• Prostitution
• trauma
• trauma-informed care
• program evaluation
• women in prostitution

Acknowledgments

I would like to share my sincerest gratitude to my advisor and mentor, Dr. Pam Remer, for her guidance and support throughout my dissertation, which ultimately led to this article. Without your invaluable wisdom and encouragement, I would not have been able to produce such meaningful, feminist, social justice-focused research.

Notes

1. Parentheses indicates principle was partially met.

2. I did not inquire about program staff’s racial, gender, or other identities as it was not immediately relevant to this study, therefore, I assumed all interviewees, program founders, and directors were White based on their appearance in interviews or pictures on their websites. I apologize if my assumptions were incorrect.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by the Arvle and Ellen Turner Thacker Dissertation Award, University of Kentucky College of Education.