188 – Building an MDT for Victims of Child Sex Trafficking

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak speak with Lieutenant Joe Laramie about the difference between multidisciplinary teams for child abuse and sex trafficking, the challenges associated with MDT, and the direction we need to move forward with. Joe is the program manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College working in the Missing and Exploited Children’s and the Internet Crimes Against Children Training and Technical Assistance Programs. With more than 30 years of child protection, investigation, and training experience he sheds light on this topic with a fresh perspective. Key Points MDT, or multidisciplinary team, accentuates that approaches with collaborative work are more beneficial than individual work. The main difference between an MDT for child abuse and an MDT for child sex trafficking is the expanded team members in trafficking investigations. Challenges of MDT include scheduling time and location, professional attitudes, forensic interviewer training, the role of a victim advocate, and medical evaluations. Resources Lotus Anti-Trafficking Model 36 – Why Healthcare Providers Matter and What They Can Do 185 – Educational Resources for Health Care Providers Net Smartz Are you enjoying the show? If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe or rate the podcast on iTunes by clicking here. Click here for FAQs about podcasts and how to subscribe. Haven’t been receiving our newsletter? Visit our homepage to join today. Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected]. Transcript Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 188, Building an MDT for Victims of Child Sex Trafficking. Production Credits: [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. Dave: [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie: [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan. Dave: [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, you’ve been empowering me for eight years of learning new things on this topic and we will be down that road again today because the acronym MDT is in the title of this episode. I have absolutely no idea what that is and I’m guessing some in our listening community also, do not know what that is. So, this is going to be an education for all of us today, I believe. Sandie: [00:01:07] Good, I always love it when I can teach you something new. Dave: [00:01:11] We have, as always, an expert with us today that is going to really help open up the doors and help us to even learn more about this complex issue. I’m pleased to welcome an expert to the show today and that is Lieutenant Joe Laramie. He is the program manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College working in the Missing and Exploited Children’s and the Internet Crimes Against Children training and technical assistance programs. He retired in 2010 from the Glendale Missouri Police Department with more than 30 years of child protection investigation and training experience. During his time with the Glendale PD, he was Police Juvenile Officer and child abuse investigator, a D.A.R.E. officer, and in 2001 created the Greater St. Louis Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. He is nationally known as a speaker on the topic of online child exploitation, child sex trafficking, and technology related protections for youth families and professionals. Lieutenant Laramie, we’re so, glad to welcome you to the show. Joe: [00:02:15] Well thank you so, very much. I’m really excited to have this opportunity today. Sandie: [00:02:20] We should start right at the beginning with putting Dave out of his misery here and let’s talk about what is an MDT, and why is that the best process? Joe: [00:02:32] Well for the law enforcement officers who listen in, MDT does not stand for a mobile data terminal. That’s the computer that you normally see in police cars. It stands for multidisciplinary team. And truly, multidisciplinary teams have evolved over the last 35, maybe 40, years to address child abuse investigations and they are pretty much the standard all across the United States and in foreign countries as well. They’re building out team approaches to investigating child abuse and exploitation. And it all boils down to it doesn’t take away each individual discipline; so, that’s law enforcement, that’s Child Protective Services, it’s the prosecution, and that’s the forensic interviewer, the child at the center, the medical staff, the child advocate, and mental health. They are all part of the team and each of them has their own role, but as they work to an investigation a review of the situation and the incident of the abuse, their collaborative work is so, much better than their individual work. Sandie: [00:03:52] That’s really powerful that collaborative work is more beneficial than all of our little individual. So, when we come together it sort of amplifies the team experience. Joe: [00:04:07] Oh, absolutely. And it reduces trauma to the victim, it provides- well I don’t want to say one-time interview of the victim because they’re still going to be multiple interviews of the victim, but it certainly reduces the number of times that the victim has to tell their story. Sandie: [00:04:23] Okay. So, what’s the difference between an MDT for child abuse and an MDT for child sex trafficking? Joe: [00:04:32] Well I think the biggest difference is the members. It’s still the same type of process where people can come together, they can talk about the situation that they’re familiar with, they’re part of their investigation, the things that they need other people to help them with. But we’ve expanded out a team in the trafficking investigation to include people that you may not have even thought of before. We’re going to add foster families to the mix. And when we talk about teams, it doesn’t mean that teams all sit in the same room and talk about everything in front of everyone. So, I don’t want anybody to think that when the team comes together that this is all inclusive, everybody gets to know what everybody else is doing kind of thing. There are times when the foster family of a trafficking victim, it’s possible that the victim, the survivor, does not have a foster family, they have a regular family but many times they do have a Foster family. So, the school should be involved, the non-government organizations where they are providing services to the survivor. So, this person who has been trafficked is now receiving extra services, sometimes it’s housing, sometimes it’s mental health, sometimes it is support, sometimes it’s medical, all of those things come together, and non-government organ...