Hospital Health Provider Experiences of Identifying and Treating Trafficked Persons

Abstract

Hospital health provider experiences of identifying and treating trafficked persons. Abstract Over the past 20 years, human trafficking ("trafficking") has generated a tremendous amount of public attention throughout the world. The problem has received growing media coverage and increased anti-trafficking activism. Additionally countries have created new policies, laws, and enforcement mechanisms to tackle the problem. This micro level study examined the lived experiences of twenty-two health and allied health workers situated within St Vincent's Health Australia's, Melbourne facility, and reports on their identification, assessment, treatment, and outreach to trafficked persons. The results indicated that trafficked persons were predominantly invisible within the health setting. When practitioners did suspect trafficking, they considered themselves as lacking the professional skills, knowledge and/or the clear organisational policy or procedures to confidently identify and manage the complex health needs of the suspected trafficked persons. The findings contribute to St Vincent's Health Australia's goal of formulating contextually appropriate policy and practices that will assist in the identification of and response to the health needs of trafficked persons. Implications  The health needs of trafficked persons are multiple and interrelated and require health care providers and systems to be skilled in the identification, intervention and treatment of trafficked persons.

Identifying Human Trafficking Victims - World Leaders and Health Institutions

“…Nevertheless, only few clinicians know how to identify victims of human trafficking amongst their patients (Stoklosa, Showalter, Melnick, & Rothman, 2017). Thus, many trafficked persons go undiscovered in the health systems (Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016;Leslie, 2018;Testa, 2020).…”

“…Human trafficking is the compelling of someone using coercion, force, or fraud to do laborious work or involuntary commercial sexual acts (Cokar, Cokar et al, 2016). Trafficking is also a crime that involves controlling and transporting people to be exploited through labor or sex for monetary gain (Cokar et al, 2016;Testa, 2020). Children who are engaged in prostitution are victims of trafficking even in the absence of coercion or fraud (Preble et al, 2019;Rollins et al, 2017).…”

“…Human trafficking involves harsh exploitation of victims and is a deplorable human rights violation ( care, the victims are likely to speak to a health care worker as opposed to the police, placing health care professionals in a unique position to interrupt the abuse cycle (Bespalova et al, 2016;Testa, 2020). While law enforcement agencies or the legal communities look at the legal aspects surrounding potential victimization, clinicians are more likely to discover useful diagnostic signs or symptoms that can be used to identify trafficked victims (Bauer, Brown, Cannon, & Southard, 2019).…”

“…While law enforcement agencies or the legal communities look at the legal aspects surrounding potential victimization, clinicians are more likely to discover useful diagnostic signs or symptoms that can be used to identify trafficked victims (Bauer, Brown, Cannon, & Southard, 2019). Trafficking assessment and intervention efforts of the care providers may prevent further exploitation and lessen the risk of severe physical and mental consequences (Dols et al, 2019;Kaltiso et al, 2018;Testa, 2020). However, human trafficking victims often go unnoticed in health care settings and their delicate health needs are often undetected (Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016; McDow & Dols, 2021; Nguyen, P. T.…”

“…However, human trafficking victims often go unnoticed in health care settings and their delicate health needs are often undetected (Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016; McDow & Dols, 2021; Nguyen, P. T. et al, 2018;Testa, 2020). In an emergency department setting or during the process of caring for multiple emergently ill patients in an acute setting, clinicians may miss significant signs that would indicate that a patient is the victim of trafficking (Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016).…”