37 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MARCH 2020
NEW HYDE PARK, NY – In an effort to provide
assistance to victims of human trafficking, Northwell Health
has joined five other health care systems in the United States--
Baptist Health in Florida; Advocate Aurora Health in Illinois;
Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey; RWJ Barnabas
Health in New Jersey; and Harris Health in Texas-- in a pilot
study designed to help health care providers identify the “red
flags” of this menacing societal issue.
The study, which will eventually help the World Health
Organization (WHO) create a standardized set of protocols,
provides guidelines aimed at properly identifying human
trafficking victims and helping them get to safety.
The latest research reveals that up to 88 percent of human
trafficking victims and survivors seek help in a health care
setting. These visits could serve the critical purpose of
providing trafficking victims with options of care, if handled
by medical staff who are sensitive to their specific needs.
During a press conference held at Long Island Jewish
Medical Center, Jasmine Grace Marino, a human trafficking
survivor, spoke of the years she spent in virtual servitude to a
man who used her for profit. Now a happily married mother
of five children and a published author, Ms. Marino
acknowledged that during the time of her ordeal, she saw a
doctor about every three months at her local hospital.
“Each time, a ‘little seed of hope’ was planted until I was
finally able to take the leap to start a new life,” said Ms.
Marino. “All it took was one person showing a genuine
interest and listening to me.”
Ms. Marino, who was tracked at 18 by a man who she said
“played the boyfriend role” and met her family steadily
convinced her that her dreams of becoming a hair dresser and
Left to right: Santosh Paulus, MD;
Deb O’Hara-Rusckowski, RN; and Jasmine
Grace Marino, a human trafficking survivor
journalist were unimportant and that if she was having sex
anyway, she may as well get paid for it. While she was initially
trafficked in Massachusetts, Ms. Marino was taken to Nevada,
Florida, Connecticut and Maine. She broke free of human
trafficking and is now founder of the charitable group Bags of
Hope.
Santhosh Paulus, MD, director of Huntington Hospital’s
family medicine residency program, initiated Northwell’s
human trafficking task force in March 2017. Since that time,
13 patients who came through Northwell facilities had been
flagged as potential human trafficking victims; six agreed to
accept resources and assistance. There are approximately
1,000 New Yorkers each year who become victims of human
trafficking, according to Dr. Paulus. But the reality is that
incidences in the United States are underreported, he said,
because many health care workers remain unaware of the
signs.
To date, nearly 4,000 Northwell employees, both medical
and non-clinical, have received training in the area of human
trafficking via the health system’s electronic iLearn platform;
another 1,100 have participated in a 90-minute, in-person
educational session.
Global Strategic Operatives for the Eradication of Human
Trafficking (GSO) recently honored Northwell – one of six
health systems nationwide – for placing an emphasis on
identifying and helping human trafficking victims who pass
through its facilities.
“Let’s not just keep talking about this issue; it’s time to roll
up our sleeves and think of practical solutions,” said Deb
O’Hara-Rusckowski, RN, GSO founder and a delegate for the
Order of Malta to the United Nations. She noted that The
Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United
Nations has a goal of ending human trafficking by 2030 and
that we are “nowhere near that.”
“Since there is so much shame associated with human
trafficking, it is easy to relapse and to get lost in a cycle of
trafficking,” Ms. Marino said. “It’s domestic violence on
steroids because of the shame. It’s important that people
remember that trafficking doesn’t just happen. No little girl
ever dreams about growing up to be a prostitute.”
For more information about Northwell’s human
trafficking task force, go to https://www.northwell.edu/news/
identifying-human-trafficking.
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