Translate page with Google

Story Publication logo February 26, 2020

Training Trafficking's First Responders

Author:
Sex-trafficked as a child, Margeaux Gray, a resident of Los Angeles, has lived with trauma-induced visual impairment, gastroparesis, peripheral neuropathy and complex PTSD for decades. Image by Isabella Gomes. United States, 2019.
English

For years, the U.S. healthcare system has failed to identify sex-trafficked victims in clinics and...

SECTIONS
For decades, the U.S. healthcare system has failed to identify sex-trafficked victims in clinics and hospitals across the country; a new coalition of doctors and activists seeks to change this. Image by Isabella Gomes. United States, 2019.
For decades, the U.S. healthcare system has failed to identify sex-trafficked victims in clinics and hospitals across the country; a new coalition of doctors and activists seeks to change this. Image by Isabella Gomes. United States, 2019.

For decades, the response to sex trafficking has largely fallen under the jurisdiction of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. While other crimes of violence have been reframed as public health issues, this has not been the case for human trafficking. As a result, thousands to tens of thousands of sex-trafficked patients are rapidly falling through the cracks of the healthcare system, never receiving the care or resources they truly need.

Even so, in the last few years, many providers and survivor-activists across the country have begun to address sex trafficking from a public health perspective. From developing standardized hospital protocol to adapting medical residency curricula, they are training future generations of doctors, nurses, and social workers to assist victims of trafficking and help end the cycle of violence.

RELATED TOPICS

navy halftone illustration of a female doctor with her arms crossed

Topic

Health Inequities

Health Inequities
Three women grouped together: an elderly woman smiling, a transwoman with her arms folded, and a woman holding her headscarf with a baby strapped to her back.

Topic

Gender Equality

Gender Equality

Support our work

Your support ensures great journalism and education on underreported and systemic global issues