HOUSTON (CNS) — While many may be aware of Houston as a hub for sex trafficking, the crime may occur right in front of them. To train people, especially medical staff, to become aware of the crime and how to report it, Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the largest nonprofit, faith-based health systems in the nation, leads a campaign to prevent and intervene in human trafficking, said Kimberly Williams with Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center Mission/Spiritual Care Department.
“Many times the one common ground for these survivors is in the emergency room for being assaulted or injured in some way,” said Williams, project coordinator of the Human Trafficking Initiative. “We are training 7,000 health care providers on how to identify and intervene.”
Now with a federal grant of $649,560 to be used over the next three years, the effort builds on the Greater Houston Area Pathways for Advocacy-Based Trauma-Informed Healthcare (PATH) Collaborative founded by St. Luke’s Health, which includes Baylor College of Medicine, Ben Taub Hospital, Doctors for Change and San Jose Clinic, which is a health ministry of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
“Thanks to the support of our national organization’s mission and ministry fund, we were able to launch the pilot program at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in 2016,” said May Cahill, executive director of St. Luke’s Foundation. “The initiative is a priority for our leadership, and now with our newest grant we are moving to expand and grow the program across our Texas division.”
With January being Human Trafficking Awareness Month, Williams, Cahill and other members of the PATH Collaborative toured those medical facilities to meet the doctors and nurses on the front lines trying to close the gap for patient care of human trafficking survivors.
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