About the Project
Human trafficking is often referred to as "modern-day slavery." In the early 2000’s, the US federal government shared (under)estimates of how many people were trafficked into the United States annually. These figures did not include US citizens or residents.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (which reauthorized the original law of 2000) was designed to increase protections for all trafficked persons in the US. But it is difficult to identify these individuals so that they can be counted, as traffickers effectively use psychological, financial, physical, and other control mechanisms to keep their "workers."
In speaking with Brown University medical students in the fall of 2005, Katherine Chon, co-founder of Polaris (neé Polaris Project), a not-for-profit anti-trafficking organization, stated that the medical field is essentially the frontline of defense for people with a trafficking experience — especially in the ED. People present here, often with their traffickers, and receive medical attention but not the further help they need that would allow them the opportunity to leave their situation. According to Chon, emergency healthcare clinicians often miss or mistake the signs of human trafficking, and/or do not know how to help, and such patients are sent back "home" with their traffickers.
Emergency healthcare practitioners ought to know how these cases present to their clinical setting, just as they know the presentation of intimate partner violence or individuals with acute hepatitis B infections, so that they can better serve their communities. Clinicians must also learn of the resources available to help their patients after emergent healthcare is provided. This information needs to be widely and efficiently circulated to clinicians, as people with a trafficking experience may only present once to an ED. Furthermore, this content must be incorporated into the education of all healthcare students to close the knowledge-gap.
This project endeavored to generate an introductory teaching module for practicing emergency medicine clinicians, as well as for professional health students, to inform them of the clinical presentation and appropriate treatment of people with a trafficking experience. With said aim, this website was developed to make this information freely available and accessible to healthcare practitioners.