Quality of Life (QOL) Grant Investigates Dental Service Experiences of Human Trafficking Survivors
Sandrine Gaillard-Kenney, Ed.D. is Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences (HCS). She was recently awarded a Quality of Life (QOL) grant titled “Human Trafficking Survivors’ Experiences of Dental Services through Photovoice.”
Tell me about your recent grant-funded project.
This QOL research grant is intended to give trafficking survivors a voice and participatory role in the dental services they receive. This research will explore if the delivery of services is appropriate for victims needs, if the protocol (i.e., trauma-informed care) is being received well by survivors, and will ask about experiences receiving dental care. Specifically, participants will be provided with a prompt by the dental care provider such as how the dentist made them feel, and then will have one week to capture photos in their environment that will be used during the debriefing session. During debriefing, participants will be asked why they took the picture, what it means to them, and how it relates to their dental experience. This method of data collection was chosen since communicating through photographs can present as less threatening then completing a survey. Also, this gives the survivor the ability to direct what content they feel comfortable sharing with the researcher and gives them a platform to have a voice in their care.
Who is working with you on this project?
Dr. Brianna Kent, Assistant Dean of Professional Development in HCS, is my co-principal investigator and we have both been working with trafficking victims since 2010. In the fall semester, we will begin holding interviews to also recruit a student research assistant to the project.
We have many victim advocate community partners working with us including Nancy J. Cotterman Center and THRIVE in Miami-Dade County. Our partners are helping us to recruit participants and the survivors advocates are welcome to be part of debriefing sessions to ensure participants feel safe.
How does this project connect with your other work at NSU?
In 2015, Dr. Kent and I founded the Coalition for Research and Education against Trafficking and Exploitation (CREATE) in HCS. In this role, we have worked to create partnerships in the community, procure grant funding, and hold training sessions for students and other professionals.
What advice do you have for other grant seekers at NSU?
My advice is to pick a topic you are passionate about and allow it to have a significant meaning for you in conjunction with impacting the community. Also, make sure to have a tight budget and ensure the project you are pursuing can be completed in the allotted time frame set by the grant.
What is the next grant proposal or project on your agenda?
Dental services can be very expensive and some survivors have not had access to health care services, let alone dental care, in many years. Therefore, the need for more funding to provide procedures such as dentures is paramount. We hope to procure more funding to be able to offer a variety of direct dental services to survivors.
What is your hope for the outcomes in this project and expanding on it in the future?
My hopes include gaining information from survivors on how to improve the care they are receiving and have participants fully participate in this process. We hope to bridge the gap so participants feel comfortable sharing with us, feel their dental needs are met, and ultimately feel empowered.
In the future I aim to expand on this project, including having survivor informed data that will allow us to gain more funding to expand and tailor the services we provide to this patient population.