How Healthcare Organizations Can Help Human Trafficking Victims

Healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims by providing them with treatment and support services to help these individuals rebuild their lives. They have a responsibility to respond and help these victims who come into the emergency department or health care settings. 

Healthcare workers should be knowledgeable and well-trained in managing patients who are also victims of human trafficking. Policies and procedures in every healthcare facility should also be created to ensure proper coordination and communication within the organization when an incident occurs.

This article covers the healthcare system's role in helping and supporting human trafficking victims, such as providing treatment options, training healthcare workers to manage victims, and creating effective policies and procedures for addressing human trafficking. 

What’s In The Article?

• Human Trafficking In The Healthcare Field

• Roles Of Healthcare Workers In Human Trafficking

• How Healthcare Organizations Help Human Trafficking Victims

• Recognizing Victims Of Trafficking

• Providing Treatment Options For Victims

• Ensuring Privacy And Safety For Victims

• Human Trafficking Training For Healthcare Providers

• Policies And Procedures About Human Trafficking

• Working With Other Organizations

• Mandatory Reporting Requirements

• Final Thoughts

Human Trafficking In The Healthcare Field

Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, supplying or getting a person for the goal of enslaving or indentured servitude. It can occur in industries, households, and brothels.

Human trafficking is not only a problem for victims. It can also be a dilemma for healthcare organizations, particularly if they are more concerned with treating a patient than determining if they are being trafficked and assisting them to escape.

When ill or injured, traffickers frequently transport their victims to hospitals or clinics to receive the necessary medical care. In other instances, the traffickers would even bring family-appearing individuals who are actually members of their organization into these institutions.

By bringing multiple people into the hospital at once, traffickers can make it more difficult for hospital staff and first responders to recognize something is suspicious when there is a group of patients requiring care at the same time, as opposed to a single individual undergoing standard check-in procedures.

Roles Of Healthcare Workers In Human Trafficking

Healthcare workers are responsible for recognizing indicators of abuse and reporting them when necessary. If a patient is suspected of being exploited or neglected, they should report the alleged abuse in accordance with state reporting legislation and refer patients to social agencies.

Each patient should be treated respectfully and without prejudice by the medical practitioner. It is crucial not to blame the patient for any circumstances surrounding their health issues. Additionally, healthcare workers should understand their responsibility in effectively assisting victims of human trafficking.

Healthcare workers are frequently at the forefront of identifying victims and providing them with support services.  The healthcare organization can play a significant role in educating healthcare workers about human trafficking by providing them with training sessions or organizing discussions about handling such cases when they arise.

How Healthcare Organizations Help Human Trafficking Victims

Healthcare organizations are crucial in meeting the victim’s physical, mental, and behavioral health requirements. They should also provide training for healthcare workers on recognizing signs of abuse and neglect, which can help them assess victims of human trafficking.

Healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims by providing them with access to medical care, which is frequently vital to their recovery. If necessary, physicians should also give appropriate legal services and mental health treatment recommendations.

Additionally, healthcare organizations should create policies and procedures for addressing reports of suspected abuse from staff or other individuals in their facilities. Every member of a healthcare organization must undergo training on how to identify victims of human trafficking. They should be aware of what information is required when making these reports, how to respond if there is urgent danger, and how privacy rules apply when giving information about patients.

Recognizing Victims Of Trafficking

Healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims by recognizing potential signs of trafficking and providing evidence to law enforcement agencies that they have been trafficked.  The following are indicators of maltreatment for a possible victim of human trafficking:

• Physical abuse: Visible wounds or scars, as well as limping or other mobility-related problems.

• Psychological abuse: Excessive fear, depression, anxiety disorders, uneasiness, and paranoia. In addition, victims may exhibit withdrawn behavior, hostility toward others, and self-harming behaviors, such as slashing themselves with razors or other sharp items. These habits may endure even after victims have escaped these conditions. The psychological trauma caused by severe abuse continues after regular physical torment has ceased.

Providing Treatment Options For Victims

Healthcare organizations should provide continuous support after a victim has been identified and treated. Considering that survivors of human trafficking may experience self-blame and guilt, as well as dread and mistrust of others, healthcare professionals must be cautious of their own attitudes while working with victims. They must be mindful of how their behavior may damage the victim's mental health and well-being during therapy and in the long run.

Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned within the network of services available for victims of human trafficking. They frequently work with them at various stages of recovery, from initial identification to outpatient care and even long-term care after they have left an emergency shelter or transitional housing facility.

The best way to treat victims is by giving them access to healthcare services. Healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims by providing the following:

• Physical Health Services: Physical health problems are common among survivors of human trafficking, including substance abuse, fatigue, and malnutrition. Healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims by identifying these physical health issues and providing treatment options to improve their quality of life.

• Mental Health Services: Mental health issues are also very common among victims who suffer trauma since traffickers abuse them physically and psychologically. With this in mind, medical professionals need proper training about

  how human trafficking impacts the mental health of its victims
  , so they will know how best to treat them.

Ensuring Privacy And Safety For Victims

Privacy and safety are of paramount importance to survivors. They may have been scaped, but they still fear being found by their traffickers. Healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims protect their information's confidentiality unless the patient has given prior permission for disclosure. 

If a victim does not want their identity revealed in any way, they must follow this demand and keep their identity strictly confidential. It involves separating the doctor-patient relationship from other agency processes, such as law enforcement and legal proceedings.

Human Trafficking Training For Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers must be taught to identify possible victims of human trafficking, particularly those at risk of domestic servitude. In the acute care setting, nurses are most likely to encounter a victim of domestic servitude, but they may not necessarily know what to look for.

The training should include the range of scenarios in which human trafficking can occur and how these situations vary from other forms of abuse. Asking victims about their conditions and detecting inconsistencies between their responses and actions are some of the ways to identify victims of human trafficking.

Healthcare organizations must conduct proper training for their staff and educate them on recognizing human trafficking victims. Staff should also be knowledgeable about reporting potential incidents of human trafficking. The training should also include information on where victims can find support and help after fleeing their traffickers.

Human Trafficking CE Courses For Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers in several states, such as Florida and Texas, must complete continuing education (CE) courses in human trafficking. This training must be accredited and approved by the state agency. For instance,

Policies And Procedures About Human Trafficking

Another way how healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims is by creating policies and procedures that determine the proper way of handling their cases.

The first step to developing a policy is identifying the problem.  This can be accomplished by discussing with staff members or speaking with individuals with extensive experience in the industry.

You should also determine why this policy is necessary: What is its purpose? Who will gain from these adjustments? Why do people who may be mistreated require protection? How much would it cost to execute these changes?

The responses will help decide what actions healthcare practitioners should take in response to human trafficking situations. It will also help the organizations determine whether multiple policies must be adopted across departments and institutions within their practice settings or whether a single document outlining how each department must respond to cases of human trafficking is sufficient.

Importance Of Documented Policies And Procedures

Developing effective policies and procedures will allow the organization to improve internal coordination and performance, complete regulatory requirements, establish an effective infrastructure, increase financial efficiency, meet accreditation criteria, and promote staff responsibility. A well-defined documentation of these procedures will help every staff to carry out an appropriate response to an incident. 

Working With Other Organizations

Partnerships across various healthcare entities, such as mental health and substance misuse treatment clinics, emergency departments, primary care physicians, and hospitals, are encouraged to provide a comprehensive approach to this problem.

These organizations will likely engage with these patients due to the nature of their practice settings. Different healthcare organizations help human trafficking victims by sharing information across disciplines and offering integrated services as needed.

Additionally, healthcare practitioners must collaborate with law enforcement, social service providers, and others who can assist patients in need. This may include pharmacists, barbers and hairstylists, nail technicians, hotel employees, security guards, and taxi drivers who engage with the general public.

Healthcare organizations should collaborate with other institutions to provide comprehensive services that meet the health needs of human trafficking victims.

Mandatory Reporting Requirements

Mandatory reporting is a legal requirement for healthcare workers to report suspected victims of abuse or human trafficking.  Healthcare organizations should provide essential information on

Final Thoughts

Healthcare organizations can play a significant role in supporting victims of human trafficking. Additionally, they should give ongoing care for these people so that they don’t feel as though their lives are over after being rescued from their traffickers. Lastly, healthcare organizations must secure the privacy and safety of victims and educate others on how they can help prevent human trafficking in their own communities.