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Samuel Merritt University’s Oakland campus will soon hold its free annual training aimed to teach medical professionals how to recognize the signs of human trafficking and provide trauma-informed care.
SMU invites all licensed medical professionals and SMU medical students to attend its upcoming Human Trafficking Prevention and Response Program on March 26. It’s the only program of its kind across all medical schools in California.
It was started in 2022 by nursing instructor Sarah Koster upon realizing that there was no proper training to inform students on how to identify red flags for trafficking or handle encounters with trafficking victims.
“Working with students at SMU, I saw that we were recognizing and seeing folks who were either at risk for trafficking, currently experiencing trafficking or were survivors of trafficking,” Koster said in an interview. “I looked around and realized we had no conversation about it in our curriculum.”
Health care providers are some of the most likely professionals to encounter victims of human trafficking during captivity.
Studies show that about 80% of trafficking victims see a medical professional during captivity. However, only 30% of health care providers feel equipped to address human trafficking in clinical settings.
“Medical practitioners are really well positioned to respond to and support people who are both experiencing and exiting trafficking,” Koster said. “Victims will go to the emergency room, primary care clinic, or take their kid to a pediatrician.”
In addition, trafficking victims can sometimes experience long-term health consequences as a result of the experiences endured during captivity and exploitation.
“Folks experiencing trafficking don’t just have a one-time hospital visit,” Koster said. “They have chronic pain and they will keep coming back to health care professionals.”
High rates of human trafficking cases in Bay Area
In 2023, 12% of all nationwide cases of human trafficking occurred in California, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Most cases involved women experiencing sex trafficking.
San Francisco’s Department on the Status of Women identified about 2,500 cases of human trafficking in the Bay Area over a two-year period in 2022 and 2023.
“We see quite a bit of human trafficking in the Bay Area,” Koster said. “We’re very aware of it and that’s one of the reasons that we wanted to prioritize doing this teaching.”
Few medical schools in the U.S. provide human trafficking awareness trainings in their curriculums. Some states, like Michigan and Texas, have enacted legislation that requires certain medical professionals to undergo human trafficking prevention and intervention training in order to receive and renew their medical licenses.
Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 963, which requires hospitals with emergency rooms to implement policies that allow emergency room patients to confidentially and safely identify themselves as trafficking victims.
The one day, in-person training at SMU is led by several faculty members in partnership with community-led organizations in the Bay Area that provide human trafficking prevention and intervention services such as A Sista’s Touch, Dream Youth Clinic and Bay Area Women Against Rape.
“When I was younger, my understanding of trafficking was like a ‘Law and Order’ episode. … But the reality is that the stories we hear are a lot more nuanced.”
Sarah Koster, nursing instructor
The training includes a presentation from a trafficking survivor, a panel discussion with clinicians and representatives from local anti-trafficking organizations, and group activities working through case studies.
“We’ve seen consistently after every training that the attendees’ understanding of some of the myths and truths around trafficking change in the right direction,” Koster said. “We don’t expect anyone to be an expert after just one training. But we want them to feel more confident and know who to call when they have questions.”
One of the primary teachings of the training is how to create a safe space in clinical settings where trafficking victims feel comfortable to share information on what they are enduring.
Some indicators that someone may be experiencing trafficking include sharing a scripted or inconsistent story about their medical concern, hesitancy or unwillingness to answer questions about their injury or illness, or being accompanied by a controlling individual.
“When I was younger, my understanding of trafficking was like a ‘Law and Order’ episode,” Koster said. “Someone’s getting scooped up by someone in a windowless van and they need to be rescued. But the reality is that the stories we hear are a lot more nuanced.”
Building a model for other medical schools
SMU is working with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses to develop methods of getting similar trainings implemented at other medical schools.
“We’re looking into maybe creating a toolkit to share with other universities to guide them how they could make the same program work in their communities,” Koster said.
Those who are interested in participating in the free, in-person training from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on March 26 can email community@samuelmerritt.edu.
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