The Barriers to Accessing Health Care for Women Previously Trafficked: Scoping Review

ABSTRACT

The stereotyping of the experiences of women and sensational imagery of anti-trafficking awareness campaigns restricts the efforts of healthcare providers to address the needs of women previously trafficked. The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the barriers to accessing health care for women previously trafficked. A scoping review was conducted to assess the initial breadth of available research. In early 2021, the titles, abstracts and subject headings were searched in CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Medline, Embase, SocINDEX with Full Text, Scopus, and Psych Info. The resulting articles were screened by two reviewers based on established inclusion and exclusion criteria. Conflicts were resolved through conversations between the two reviewers. The overall search yielded a total of 1241 records after duplicates were removed. A total of 12 full-text articles were included in this review. Barriers included control by trafficker(s), lack of documentation, and previous negative experiences with healthcare and service providers. There was a lack of congruency with identifying self-reliance and self-treatment as a barrier or facilitator. Recommended policy changes include less prosecution-orientated approaches, a focus on social policy for the protection of women, and poverty alleviation. Peer-to-peer support can facilitate access to health care for women previously trafficked.

KEYWORDS:

• Previously trafficked
• women
• barriers
• facilitators
• recommendation
• access
• healthcare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).