The article<\/a>, published this week, speaks of \u201cavoidable harms\u201d<\/em> and \u201cdisastrous long-term costs\u201d<\/em> caused by cuts to funding and services for sex workers.<\/p>\n \u201cA growing number of specialist services across the UK have faced substantial funding cuts in recent years, mirroring wider cost savings and shifts in commissioning environments,\u201d<\/em> the article says.<\/p>\n \u201c[The] withdrawal of local government funding for outreach and key staff positions in London and other UK cities threatens to seriously limit capacity to provide specialist, integrated care to sex workers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n The authors specifically highlight the Open Doors program, an east London service aimed at offering free and confidential advice to those working in the sex industry. The service is currently facing planned budget cuts of more than 40 percent.<\/p>\n Such cuts will, according to the authors, reduce Open Doors to a \u201cprimarily clinic-based service, limiting outreach to street-based settings, even though most sex workers work indoors.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n They claim the cuts will also compromise case management opportunities.<\/p>\n The article praised the work of services such as Open Doors, stressing that they have managed to control outbreaks of HIV, syphilis, and tuberculosis among sex workers. The authors noted that outreach programmes have more than halved the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).<\/p>\n In addition, the authors stressed that such services \u201csupport sex workers who have experienced sexual violence; help them deal with drug and alcohol use, mental health issues, and housing needs and avoid criminalization; and employ multilingual outreach workers in settings where many sex workers are migrants.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The authors urged the Home Affairs Committee to consider the decriminalization of sex work, calling it a \u201ccrucial step towards improving sex workers\u2019 health and safety.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n However, they stressed \u201cadequate public health government funding\u201d<\/em> is also needed \u2013 and if it isn\u2019t received, any public health gains acquired through decriminalization would be undermined.<\/p>\n \u201cWe urge the committee to consider this international evidence and emerging data from the UK in recommending a broader legal framework, but legislative change alone is not enough,\u201d<\/em> the authors wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sex workers face a greater risk of violence and poor health as a result of Tory cuts to the National Health Service (NHS), an editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has warned. The article, published this week, speaks of \u201cavoidable harms\u201d and \u201cdisastrous long-term costs\u201d caused by cuts to funding and services for sex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-262619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2016.07\/thumbnail\/577638e6c46188d84f8b4576.jpg\")
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n