by Ashley Raymond
I have been working as an Emergency Services clinician for the past 6 years. My job entails conducting mental health and safety evaluations in the ER and helping to determine the right level of care. My training primarily focused on suicidal ideation and psychosis. There was always the occasional unique case which did not present with any of those symptoms, and we would do our best to provide support as needed.
Years after starting my career I saw an ad for A21 (https://www.a21.org) and began researching human trafficking. Like many others, I had assumed this was not something happening close to home. I assumed it presented with more obvious symptoms, behaviors and situations like we see in movies. After getting the appropriate training on human trafficking, I began scanning several cases in my head I had seen in the ER. I can still remember two individuals very clearly that to this day I believe may have been a victim of trafficking and at the time I had no idea.
I was frustrated and disappointed that this topic wasn’t talked about in my schooling and training. I quickly began educating coworkers and encouraged them to join events to spread awareness. Luckily, one of these two individuals came back through the doors of the ER. Because of awareness and training, one of my coworkers was able to identify the signs and report it to the police.
Since then I have changed jobs to a new agency and ER. I have kept the topic of human trafficking frequently discussed amongst my coworkers and agency. After discussing joining the NH task force with my director, I was later encouraged to host a training for my agency on human trafficking. Staff members of the agency ranging from psychiatrists to receptionists joined the training and shared their surprise at the reality of human trafficking happening in our back yards.
Hours after I hosted this training, a staff member sent me a lengthy email explaining a situation her daughter had been in. She stated that after this training she realized her daughter almost became a victim of trafficking and at the time she did not even realize it. The following day I received a similar email from another staff member mentioning a family member that had come face to face with trafficking and they were unaware of how prevalent this was.
What also frightens me is that the women reaching out to me with these stories were from towns and neighborhoods that were considered ‘upper-class’ and these traffickers were able to blend in and manipulate their way into their children’s lives. Human trafficking does not discriminate and it does not disappear no matter how wealthy or secure a town is considered. Because of the response I received from staff members, I understand the need to continue spreading awareness and educating others.
At the end of the day, ensuring full community awareness of the issue and understanding and training among a range of professionals is our best strategy to defeat human trafficking!