Human trafficking response program

Education for providers & staff

With support from the CommonSpirit Foundation, we have developed training modules to educate health professionals about human trafficking and trauma-informed approaches to patient care and services. These modules were developed in partnership with CommonSpirit providers, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other patient care leaders and staff across the system, as well as subject matter experts from partner organizations and survivors of labor and sex trafficking. They include

• Human Trafficking 101: Dispelling the Myths

• Trauma-Informed Approach to Patient Care and Services

• PEARR: Five Steps to Victims Assistance in Health Care Settings

• Human Trafficking & Health Care Scenarios 

Prior to the pandemic, we regularly provided in-person trainings with survivor speakers to providers, staff, and community partners across the system. Since then, with support from the CommonSpirit Foundation, we have developed online interactive, narrated versions of our modules. These modules are available for free with continuing education credits. 

Learn more (this will lead to the Courses page)

PEARR tool & other resources

The PEARR Tool is a key component of our Abuse, Neglect, and Violence policy/procedures. We developed the PEARR Tool in partnership with HEAL Trafficking, a multidisciplinary group of professionals dedicated to ending human trafficking and supporting its survivors, and Pacific Survivor Center, a non-profit organization committed to advancing health and human rights in the Hawaii-Pacific region. The PEARR steps are based on an approach in which patients are educated and empowered with information and resources before further screening is conducted. The goal is to have an informative and normalizing conversation with patients to promote health, safety, and well-being, and to create a context for affected patients to naturally share their own experiences and possibly accept further assistance. 

PEARR stands for: Provide privacy, Educate, Ask, Respect & Respond.

With support from the CommonSpirit Foundation, we also partnered with the National Survivor Network, a network of labor and sex trafficking survivors, to develop victim outreach posters (example pictured here) and patient education brochures to assist with patient education and intervention efforts. 

Learn more (this will lead to the resources page):

[I would like to add HT Awareness Videos to that Resources page – we have a series of videos coming out. Here’s the first one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqUf4jd_ORU

HT survivor advocate program 

To enhance patient intervention efforts, we partnered with community agencies in Los Angeles County California to develop a model in which HT survivors respond on-site to support patients who are identified as possible victims of human trafficking and who agree to speak with a Survivor Advocate. With support from the CommonSpirit Foundation, our partners, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (Cast) and Journey Out, have employed HT survivors as part of their community-based victim response efforts. Data from this program will support efforts to fund similar Survivor Advocate programs across the country. Preliminary data findings are available from our outside evaluator, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Office of Women’s Health, and will be published soon. 

Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7H-mbwl3M

[We can write up preliminary findings – will work on this to add in the future]

Community partnerships

We partner with community agencies to help ensure a trauma-informed continuum of care for victims and survivors of human trafficking or other types of abuse, neglect, and violence who are identified in patient care settings. With support from CommonSpirit and the CommonSpirit Foundation, each facility assesses its community for available resources and develops relationships with agencies to help support referral pathways for patients.

Ideally, community-based services will include a 24-hour victim response team and options for residential care as well as outreach support. We seek ways to ensure that victim services and empowerment opportunities are available for people impacted by any type of abuse, neglect, or violence, including labor or sex trafficking, and for people who are of any age, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or other cultural identity. CommonSpirit also seeks ways to support victim services for people who must be placed with children or other family members, as well as pets. When there are gaps in services, we seek ways to bolster local efforts to protect victims and empower survivors. 

This includes an annual award to a community agency that empowers survivors of human trafficking. In 2021, this award went to San Francisco SafeHouse. Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKGg9OHI3Ng. 

Medical safe haven clinics

Mercy Family Health Center (MFHC), a Dignity Health family medicine residency training facility, developed the Medical Safe Haven to provide comprehensive, trauma-informed longitudinal health services to persons who have experienced labor or sex trafficking and who are living in the Greater Sacramento California Area. With support from CommonSpirit and the CommonSpirit Foundation, MFHC has led, and continues to lead, efforts to replicate the Medical Safe Haven model at additional CommonSpirit locations. Based in a Family Medicine Residency program, the Medical Safe Haven also trains physicians and multiplies best practices for this specialized care.

Watch the impact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51HlHB5IQ6k

Learn more about the MFHC Medical Safe Haven [link to this site]: https://www.dignityhealth.org/sacramento/for-physicians/dignity-health-methodist-hospital-of-sacramento-family-medicine-residency-program/human-trafficking-safe-haven-clinic/medical-safe-haven-resources

Forced labor & supply chain

At CommonSpirit, we are committed to addressing human trafficking in the supply chain, starting with proving training in partnership with the Mekong Club. Our Forced Labor & Supply Chain Work Group focuses on preventing human trafficking by eliminating forced labor from the healthcare supply chain. This is done through partnerships with suppliers with the goal to protect worker’s rights, especially those most vulnerable to trafficking such as migrant workers in Asian and African countries. 

[Not yet ready for a learn more button – but we can work on that]

National engagement & impact

With support from the CommonSpirit Foundation, we are able to share information and learnings in the healthcare field through national and international conferences, partnerships, and publications. For example, we published an HT Shared Learnings Manual to provide information and resources with others seeking to implement a similar HT Response program. 

This Manual has been used by other health care systems across the United States, and is a key component of the six-week “SOAR for Organizations” training provided by the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center (NHTTAC). We have also been invited to the White House to share information about the role of health care in human trafficking response efforts, and we have partnered with national and international subject matter experts, including survivors of human trafficking, to develop and deliver education on human trafficking to partner organizations.

We have also held our own national conferences on health care and human trafficking response, featuring nationally-known subject matter experts and survivors of labor and sex trafficking, with attendees from other health care systems, social service providers, federal and local law enforcement agencies, and non-governmental organizations from across the country.