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Key Terms

asylum
a form of legal protection that prevents individuals from being deported to a country where they might experience harm
asylum seeker
a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country but who has not yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim
CEO pimps
pimps who promise victims lucrative careers and legitimate income
discrimination
treating someone unfairly based on characteristics that ought to be irrelevant
forcibly displaced
forced to leave one’s home because of conflict caused by humans (war, religious or political persecution, etc.) or by natural disasters
gorilla pimp
a pimp who controls their victims almost entirely through physical violence and force
grooming
a process in which a trafficker works to gain the trust of their identified victim by posing as a good listener who cares deeply as they learn more about what they can do to insinuate themselves in the victim’s life; once a trafficker has gained the trust of their victim and better understands the victim’s needs, the trafficker offers a solution to meet those needs
human trafficking (HT)
also known as trafficking in persons, a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services or to engage in commercial sex acts
institutional stigma
government and private policies that intentionally or unintentionally limit opportunities for people with mental illness
labor trafficking
a form of slavery in which individuals perform labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion; includes situations of debt bondage, forced labor, and involuntary child labor
mental health crisis
describes the current state of the U.S. health care system as it continues to be overburdened by the rise in mental health issues, as available mental health services are insufficient to meet clients’ needs
opioid naive
the connotation that an individual is not chronically receiving opioids daily
opioids
natural, synthetic, or semisynthetic chemicals that interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain to reduce the intensity of pain; this drug class includes the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain medications available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and many others
prejudice
a preconceived negative opinion of someone that is not based in facts; may predispose people to dislike and/or disrespect people with a specific diagnosis, such as schizophrenia or depression
public stigma
involves the negative or discriminatory attitudes that others have about mental illness
refugee
a person outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection
Romeo pimps
human traffickers who usually operate by trying to make young people fall in love with them or who manipulate young people in other ways; once they have victims under their influence, they exploit them
self-stigma
refers to the negative attitudes, including internalized shame, that people with mental illness have about their own condition
sex trafficking
the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced is under age 18
stateless
a person who does not enjoy citizenship—the legal bond between a government and an individual—in any country; some stateless people are also refugees, but not all refugees are stateless, and many people who are stateless have never crossed an international border
substance use disorders (SUDs)
chronic, relapsing, potentially deadly conditions that occur when the recurrent problematic use of substances leads to significant impairments of an individual’s health and function to meet major vocational, academic, social, or personal responsibilities
trauma-informed care (TIC)
a therapeutic approach that acknowledges trauma’s long-lasting emotional, neurological, psychological, social, and biological effects on a person’s present and future health
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