Introduction
It is imperative for a nurse to ensure that the needs of all vulnerable groups are met. However, numerous sociocultural constraints can often impede this goal as in the analysed case. As a member of a local assistance centre in a red-light district, I am going to take actions after learning that most women working there and coming to receive a free meal had experienced sexual abuse as children.
Particularly, I intend to create a community-based peer support network to reduce the level of social pressure these women experience. This step should encourage them to accept social workers’ services to address issues related to their psychological and physical well-being. Therefore, it is critical to build a peer support network for the target demographic since it will provide access to authorities with the power to help them.
Community-Based Intervention
The choice of community-based intervention is justified by the necessity to provide the target population with support that is currently lacking because of social prejudices. A subversive approach is thus needed to eradicate the social inequality and injustice causing this vulnerable population to refuse offered services. The use of a community approach will gain the support of local residents and encourage the specified demographic to accept the proposed treatment.
Moreover, a peer support network will provide an opportunity for the target demographic to obtain an in-depth understanding of the available resources and the support that they can receive from the respective authorities and organizations. The aspect of community intervention is especially significant due to a lack of awareness about available resources among sex industry workers (Parcesepe et al. 2016). As they are exploited by employers who basically practice sexual slavery, female sex workers have little to no agency to fight for their rights (Argento et al. 2014). As a result, this demographic is particularly vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse.
The phenomenon is aggravated by a lack of treatment for trauma caused by child abuse (Liu et al., 2015). Therefore, it is critical to provide both physical and psychological assistance to those in the sex trade industry who are victims of child abuse by building their awareness and offering resources to help them address their health issues.
Finally, incorporating a framework for managing the problem of the sex trade and addressing the trauma caused by child abuse will help in terms of dispersing information among the members of the target demographic. This strategy is significantly more effective than a patient-specific approach since it will ensure that the entire group of female sex industry workers is included. The specified change will serve as a bridge for closing the gap in the power balance that persists in modern society, especially in the context of the sex trade industry (Ulibarri et al. 2015).
Therefore, it is critical to introduce a community-based framework to ensure that the population learns crucial information concerning available health services as soon as possible. Furthermore, the selected framework will become a platform for self-education on the subject of health among sex trade workers in the designated area. As a result, the target group will gain necessary knowledge that will lead to the necessary support.
Comparison to Casework Intervention
A strategy using a case-by-case approach towards meeting the needs of female sex trade workers might also seem to present a legitimate tool in this environment. An individual strategy would allow independent management of each case. As a result, analysing the unique factors that affect each victim separately would facilitate producing an original solution that would focus primarily on handling a specific situation (Itzhaky & York 2001). However, such an approach would also reduce the scale of aid that the program can offer as well as expanding the amount of time needed to produce a tangible result.
Furthermore, existing evidence indicates that the application of a community-based tool to manage the problem of child sexual abuse is likely to lead to more satisfying results than a case-specific framework. In particular, Petersen, Bhana and Mary McKay (2005) provide evidence that the proposed intervention will affect the community from within, altering the current value system and creating a platform for preventing child abuse.
The casework intervention, however, has several tangible problems related to encompassing the entire population. Specifically, the presence of strong cultural influences on the situation is evident. According to Petersen et al. (2005), the “transactional sex was understood to underpin much of the ongoing child sexual abuse both within and without the family and sexual abuse within the family was often condoned because of economic dependence on the abuser” (p. 1238).
This phenomenon indicates that influencing socioeconomic trends in the selected community is likely to address the problem of child abuse and lead to a drop in the number of people involved in the sex trade. Furthermore, the problem of misconceptions associated with sex and sexuality affecting the rates of child sexual abuse can be addressed with the proposed intervention. The presence of a vast range of myths concerning sexual intercourse defines a propensity towards sexual abuse of children and further involvement of victims in the sex trade.
Applying a social support framework based on case-by-case management of the target population’s needs, in turn, would not produce effects of the same magnitude. It could be argued that an individual program allowing a social worker and healthcare staff to create an emotional connection with each patient individually would help to manage specific situations more successfully, thus encouraging a faster recovery process.
Indeed, such intervention can create opportunities for encompassing a range of individual factors that shape the vulnerable groups’ health outcomes. Thus, the factors that inhibit the promotion of positive change and the influences that can be deemed as positive will be identified when applying the proposed framework to the problem under analysis. The following change in the focus of the contemporary approach toward managing the health-related needs of the vulnerable population will lead to a gradual improvement.
Therefore, a community-based intervention designed to address the needs of people working in the sex trade industry as well as prevent incidences of child abuse should be seen as superior to the application of individual programs.
In contrast to the latter, the proposed tool will embrace a vast range of people belonging to the vulnerable group as well as children suffering from abuse. Moreover, the program will encourage communication between a nurse and the women involved in the sex trade, leading to improved health management among the vulnerable population under analysis. The program will also allow building social awareness that will contribute to reducing the threat of child abuse and creating an environment in which the level of safety will increase for the vulnerable population.
References
Argento, E, Muldoon, KA, Duff, P, Simo, A, Deering, KN & Shannon, K 2014, ‘High prevalence and partner correlates of physical and sexual violence by intimate partners among street and off-street sex workers’, PloS One, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 102-129.
Itzhaky, H & York, AS 2001, ‘Child sexual abuse and incest: community-based intervention. Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 959-972.
Liu, J, Calzavara, L, Mendelsohn, JB, O’Leary, A, Kang, L, Pan, Q, Myers, T, Ren, J, Cha, Y, Shi, G, Liu, X, Tian, X, Fan, H, Nim Y & Remis, RS 2015, ‘Impact evaluation of a community-based intervention to reduce risky sexual behaviour among female sex workers in Shanghai, China’, BMC Public Health, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 147-161.
Parcesepe, AM, L’Engle, KL, Martin, SL, Green, S, Suchindran, C & Mwarogo, P 2016, ‘Early sex work initiation and violence against female sex workers in Mombasa, Kenya’, Journal of Urban Health, vol. 93, no. 6, pp. 1010-1026.
Petersen, I, Bhana, A & McKay, M 2005, ‘Sexual violence and youth in South Africa: the need for community-based prevention interventions’, Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 1233-1248.
Ulibarri, MD, Roesch, S, Rangel, MG, Staines, H, Amaro, H & Strathdee, SA 2015, ‘“Amar te duele” (“Love hurts”): sexual relationship power, intimate partner violence, depression symptoms and HIV risk among female sex workers who use drugs and their non-commercial, steady partners in Mexico’, AIDS and Behavior, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 9-18.