The New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking (NJCAHT) is excited to share a new tool designed by and for medical practitioners to improve screening for human trafficking in patient-provider interactions. Originally created by Rebecca Mannino, RN at Jefferson Health, the NJCAHT worked with Lived Experience Experts and Forensic Nurse Examiners to enhance the Human Trafficking Badge Buddy (HT Badge Buddy) to reflect survivor experiences.
Human trafficking, like sexual and domestic violence, can happen to anyone, and our role as first responders and medical practitioners is to make the people we work with feel safe enough to ask for help.
The HT Badge Buddy is a tool designed to improve screening and identification of patients actively being trafficked, as well as survivors of trafficking, and connect them to resources across the state. In addition to information learned in NJCAHT’s “Human Trafficking 101”, which provides legal definitions of and dispels myths about trafficking, it reminds practitioners of the need to consider nonverbal and behavioral cues when interacting with patients. While the list of possible behavioral cues is not exhaustive, they are an invitation to ask more patient questions, to build rapport.
The HT Badge Buddy is a two-sided card that can be clipped to your name badge or another convenient and easily-accessible location. One side is “RED FLAGS,” and the other is a link to a list of resources across New Jersey.
To learn more about or request the HT Badge Buddy, please click here.