In Human Trafficking Cases, Doctors Lack Confidence to Intervene, from take part, 08/20/2015

Victims of human trafficking are ripped from the familiarity of home and deluded into a numbing isolation. Hidden in plain sight, they are often bullied and tricked into believing their situation is normal, yet it’s inescapable. They suffer in silence, enslaved for forced labor or sex.

When the abuse results in a pregnancy or an injury that can’t be ignored, a rare instance arises: Victims directly interact with health care providers. Clinicians have the power to connect these vulnerable individuals to the resources they desperately need but are too afraid to seek independently.

Yet a vast majority of health care workers—almost 80 percent—don’t feel they have adequate knowledge to assist those victims, according to new research in the U.K.

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