Source: NPR
In New York, a system of hospitals is training medical teams to screen patients and to learn how to identify victims of sex trafficking, human trafficking.
Calls for help from victims have gone up over the last few years by 13 percent, according to Polaris, a nonprofit focused on helping victims of sex trafficking. Research however has shown that in few cases have emergency teams ever been able to identify that a victim is a victim during the time that they’re hostage to the situation.
The new program aims to be able to identify victims by asking them the right questions. One survey showed that 88 percent of victims of human trafficking had contact with health care providers during the time that they were victims.
The program helps to train all staff, including physicians, to receptionists, to even the guards.
Starting later this year, physicians will be able to use certain codes to identify victims of human trafficking in reports.
Read Full Story: NPR