Reference no: EM133716558

Apply the ideology Critical Masculinity (toxic masculinity) to the following case senerio, drawing on it for insights and advocating from that perspective a social worker.

Imagine you are a social worker in a Western Sydney hospital working in Emergency. Mimi arrives in Emergency, blood trickling down the side of her head; a large patch of her hair is missing after she was grabbed by her hair and her face slammed to the ground. She was then kicked multiple times in the stomach. She was driven to the hospital by a man who stays by her side; he explains he is her boyfriend and wants to help her. When the staff asked Mimi questions, he answers for her. She does not speak. Mimi is treated for her physical problems and then hospital staff call you to see Mimi.

None of the previous hospital staff who have seen Mimi that night saw any need to separate her from the man who accompanied her. As the social worker, you are concerned about possible issues of sexual assault and domestic violence. Mimi's boyfriend says she cannot speak English and needs him to interpret for her. He refuses to leave her alone with you. You explain patient confidentiality to him, letting him know you need to see Mimi on her own. The man with Mimi becomes threatening to you and Mimi is clearly also afraid.

Hospital security are called and the man accompanying Mimi is taken to another room to wait with security staff, under threat that police will be called should he show violent behaviour.

You ask for a professional interpreter in Mimi's language. While waiting you read Mimi's medical notes and see that she has been previously treated for reproductive tract infections and has also had an abortion. It appears from the notes that no one at the hospital has ever asked Mimi about the risk factors for these.

The interpreter arrives but Mimi is initially reluctant to speak. She is clearly afraid.

Mimi eventually tells the interpreter she thinks she might be sent to jail if she speaks but asks the interpreter not to tell you this. Mimi then tells a story, which appears to you to lack credibility, claiming that she got her injuries through stumbling in the street onto rough pavement and a fire hydrant.

You find out Mimi has come from Brazil; she thought she was coming to Australia to work as a babysitter for a wealthy family and would then have the chance to go to university here. However she was met at the airport by a friend of the family and she says this man is now her boyfriend and she works for him as a sex worker. She believes this man has a sincere relationship with her but she is very afraid of him as he has hurt her and she is afraid her family in Brazil will be hurt if she runs away or tries to leave.

Mimi chooses not to leave her situation, she says she is too afraid.

The belated identification of Mimi as a victim of human trafficking at the western Sydney hospital where you work as a social worker, is discussed in your hospital social work team meeting. After hearing of Mimi's experience, the gerontology social worker mentions she has noticed that the elderly woman in bed 35 on the Gerontology ward, needs intensive round the clock care, which the family claims is provided at home by a live - in carer. The family do not want the gerontology social worker to get in touch with the carer and the carer has never visited the hospital during the four weeks of the patient's admission. The social worker is suspicious and this discussion of Mimi's case and trafficking encourages her to raise her suspicions at this staff meeting.

Social workers are skilled at building trust and as trust is often seen to be key to empowering trafficked people to disclose their situation, the social work team decide to take the lead in raising awareness, at the broader hospital level, of victims of human trafficking presenting at the hospital. Further, they advocate for strategies to be developed to assist all hospital staff identify victims of human trafficking.

When this issue was raised by the senior social worker and team leader at the hospital executive meeting; they found that staff in direct care, as well as hospital administrators, were often not exploring beyond 'is there someone to care for you when you are discharged?'

The hospital executive agrees to a meeting hosted by the social work team to which senior representatives from nursing and medical staff including allied health professionals; hospital administration and hospital security are invited.

The aim of the meeting is to identify the nature of the issues confronting trafficked people, and secondly to identify strategies which can improve the recognition of human trafficking victims in the health service. The social work team will press to have two strategies selected by the meeting for piloting and implementation.