Program UpdatesSurvivors of Torture Health Program In collaboration with the John G. Bartlett Pharmacy at Johns Hopkins, we continue to offer a medication delivery program for clients enrolled in HEAL’s Survivors of Torture (SOT) Health Program in partnership with AWE. This initiative has been made possible through funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) along with support from the Baltimore City Health Department. With this initiative, HEAL delivers essential medications directly to SOT patients while they are attending programming at AWE, promoting health literacy and adherence. Trafficking Survivors Mental Health Program HEAL and AWE have received a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Victims of Crime. With this DOJ funding, HEAL will be able to continue and expand our mental health programming for youth survivors of trafficking, facilitating language-concordant biweekly peer support groups in addition to hiring a part-time bilingual therapist and full-time community mental health advocate who will be embedded within the program. Through Steps to Success, AWE provides comprehensive support services for adolescent and young adult foreign-born trafficking survivors. Border Partnership HEAL remains committed to monitoring the constantly evolving situation at the US-Mexico border and to supporting those seeking safety at our doorstep, with focus on the most vulnerable. HEAL team members continue to collaborate with the Refugee Health Alliance to provide clinical care and conduct research in Tijuana, Mexico, in addition to our ongoing medical-legal partnership with International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Asylum Medicine Training Initiative HEAL is a co-sponsor and supporting organization of the Asylum Medicine Training Initiative (AMTI) along with our partners at Physicians for Human Rights, the Society of Asylum Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, and University of California San Francisco. AMTI is co-led by HEAL’s Medical Director, Dr. Cuneo, and managed by HEAL’s Program Coordinator, Emilie Folsom. AMTI hosts an open-access Introductory Curriculum for health and human rights practitioners focused on providing foundational knowledge for conducing forensic medical evaluations which has been adopted nationally, accessed by 2300+ individuals since it debuted in Fall 2022. Forensic Evaluation Clinic - Transportation Services Through the Johns Hopkins Hospital Community Benefit Committee, HEAL is proud to have been awarded new funding to assist clients of our Forensic Evaluation Clinic with transportation to and from their forensic evaluation appointments. We sought this support in response to feedback we obtained directly from past clients through qualitative research, who reported safe transportation as a major barrier to care. With this funding, we seek to improve access to our services as well as the experience of our clients. Refugee Health Partnership Health Navigation Practicum The Refugee Health Partnership (RHP) Health Navigation Practicum at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine just graduated its 2023 cohort, which included 30 students and 8 clients, and is welcoming an additional 30 students in 2024. RHP’s Health Navigation Practicum teams have provided critical health navigation, mentorship, and advocacy to some of AWE’s most medically vulnerable clients, including asylum seekers and survivors of trafficking with special health needs such as genetic disorders, new cancer diagnoses, or high-risk pregnancies. Through providing this support, students gain invaluable insight into the experience of underserved patients accessing our health care system across cultural, social, and linguistic barriers, training the students to become more humanistic doctors and cultivating a new generation of leaders in health equity.
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