San Antonio Standard

Experts who work with sex trafficking survivors in Texas say there is a large gap in providing treatment for those children because not enough data is available from what little research has been done, according to a recent news report.

Dr. Charles Nemeroff, acting chair and professor of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Dell Medical School and director of the Institute for Early Life Adversity Research, told KXAN in Austin that child sex trafficking is the most extreme form of childhood mistreatment.

However, treatment for those victims is not well researched, Nemeroff said in the KXAN report published Nov. 13.

“No one has ever focused on this most severe form of childhood maltreatment, so there’s a real opportunity here not only to help the girls but to also learn about what’s going on in their brain and in their bodies,” Nemeroff said.

Nemeroff provides psychiatric care to residents at The Refuge Ranch, a 48-bed long-term, residential and therapeutic community on 50 donated acres in Bastrop County. The Refuge Ranch broke ground in October 2016 to build a facility for children 11 through 19 who have been identified as trafficking victims. The facility opened its doors in 2018 and has helped more than 20 victims rescued from sex trafficking.