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gency department or health clinic has a policy to examine patients alone. Create a safe, confidential, trusting environment
with minimal staff members coming in contact with the victim.
Ensure the patient you are there to help and they are entitled to
assistance. Victims must know you are there to keep them safe,
not to “turn them in.” Always use an interpreter or translator
phone. Trafficking victims will not refer to themselves as such
and usually have severe toxic stress related to their conditions.
Keep questions open such as the following:
yy Where do you work?
yy How did you get your job? Did you get the job you were
promised?
yy Can you come and go as you please?
yy How do you get money to buy food or clothes?
yy When was the last time you saw your parents?
yy Where do you sleep and eat?
yy Do you have a boyfriend? If so, what is his name and age?
yy Has he/she ever suggested or forced you to have sex with
other men for money?
yy Has anyone ever given you money/drugs/food/shelter in
exchange for sex?
Documentation of the answers to these questions in the patient’s chart is important in helping social services and police
investigate the situation.
If you suspect that someone is a trafficking victim, call the
National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline at 1-888-3737-888. Once that call is made, you will be
connected with local resources in your community to help you
proceed.
In Kentucky there are several local agencies that can provide
assistance should you come in contact with a potential trafficking victim. The KY Rescue & Restore Coalition, operated
through Catholic Charities in Louisville, is the main service
provider for trafficking victims in this state. Their website is:
www.rescueandrestoreky.org. There are also several human
trafficking task forces in Kentucky that you could join to keep
up to date on the latest information on trafficking in your community. The contact information for these task forces is listed
on the KY Rescue & Restore website. The Kentucky Association
of Sexual Assault Programs (KASAP), also a KY Rescue and
Restore partner, works to provide informed care to traumatized
victims through its network of 13 rape crisis centers. KASAP
chairs the Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force and is avail-
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able to train law enforcement, attorneys, health care and other
professionals on human trafficking. The H.O.P.E. Children
Campaign is a new street outreach aimed at providing resource
information to domestic minors of sex trafficking. Workers in
various parts of the state on behalf of “Helping Our Prostituted
& Exploited Children” are doing outreach where they can. Volunteers with the campaign distribute chapsticks labeled with
the hotline number to businesses that are at high risk of coming into contact with trafficking victims (i.e. hotels, bus stations,
truck stops, etc.). For more information on this outreach, contact
Kentucky Rescue and Restore at www.rescuea