A key part of Colorado’s anti-trafficking response over the past two decades has been training professionals who are likely to encounter survivors in their everyday work. One of the most important groups has been healthcare providers. Medical settings are often one of the few places where survivors might have a chance to access help—even if that moment is brief. In some cases, it may be the only place where they’re seen without their trafficker present. In others, the trafficker might accompany them, making it even more vital that providers are trained to spot potential indicators and create opportunities for safe, private conversations.

“Healthcare is an essential component of a multi-sector response to human trafficking,” says Kara Napolitano, LCHT’s Education and Partnerships Director. “Healthcare providers can play a critical role in identifying and referring people who may have been trafficked and are integral to post-trafficking care.”

Many survivors of human trafficking may not self-identify or seek help, but trained healthcare providers can recognize indicators like physical injuries, malnutrition, anxiety, or signs of coercion. Since survivors often suffer from both physical and psychological trauma from their trafficking experience, trained professionals can also provide trauma-informed and effective treatment. 

Training ensures that healthcare providers understand these legal requirements and how to report safely. LCHT’s trainings also provide essential context about the complexities of trafficking situations—and why survivors may be reluctant to come forward. We emphasize trauma-informed referral resources for support services and, when appropriate and requested, connections to trusted law enforcement partners.

Several research studies report that more than 80% of people who have been trafficked have been in a healthcare setting. This means that doctors, nurses, office receptionists, and other medical professionals can play a life-changing role in supporting survivors and stopping this crime. With the right training, healthcare providers can safely intervene—without increasing risk for survivors.

Seeing the Unseen: Understanding Patients Through a New Lens

To date, the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking has trained more than 80,000 individuals to recognize potential situations of human trafficking. About 15,000 of them are healthcare providers and first responders across rural and urban Colorado. 

Trainings aim to help professionals understand what labor and sex trafficking can look like—and how to respond appropriately. Two of LCHT’s anti-trafficking trainers, Jen Jachimiec and Michelle Metz, are nurses who now help train others in their field. 

After first learning about human trafficking, Jen, a pediatric nurse and nurse educator at HCA HealthONE, remembers feeling shocked that it was an experience that her patients may be going through—even if they themselves didn’t know that they were being trafficked. “It made me dig deeper into what we can’t see about the patient in front of us, and honestly, the people all around us,” she says. 

Human trafficking is extremely complex and can be hard to identify. “It’s even harder for someone who isn’t trained to know what to do for that person, and usually their red flags get ignored or attributed to something else,” Jen explains.

To Jen, a big part of training is busting commonly held myths about human trafficking: “People aren’t chained in a basement, locked up, or stolen off the street; they are being trafficked by people they know, trust(ed), and even love(d).” She hopes that through training, more people will open their eyes to the truths of human trafficking, who is vulnerable, and what we can do to help.

Michelle, who is the Forensic Nurse Program Manager at Denver Health, remembers a moment in 2016 when a survivor who had called Colorado’s 24/7 Human Trafficking Hotline needed care, and LCHT reached out to her with a referral. “That interaction made me want to ensure that Denver Health was a safe space for people who have encountered trafficking,” she says. Michelle actively sought out additional training. “Now, even if a patient doesn’t want to talk about what they’ve been through, I can still offer them resources and let them know they’re in a safe place.”

Kara stresses the value of having Jen and Michelle, healthcare providers themselves, deliver anti-trafficking trainings. “They set people at ease immediately,” she says. “Attendees are thrilled to hear from someone who ‘gets it’ and understands all the other pressures that they are under.” Participants often ask challenging, nuanced questions that only someone who works in the industry can understand and relate to.

Learn why healthcare professionals play such an important role in the movement to end human trafficking.

From Awareness to Action: Identifying Trafficking & Supporting Survivors in Exam Rooms

LCHT trainings are not just about raising awareness—they lead to real change. After receiving training, many healthcare professionals and first responders start seeing past cases in a new light. Typically, we survey participants before and after each training. “We ask providers if they have ever encountered a survivor of human trafficking in their work,” Jen says. “After the training, the number of people who responded ‘yes’ typically increases by 50%.” They didn’t meet more patients during the training—they just saw past cases differently. That’s powerful!

Michelle has seen an increase in staff recognizing potential trafficking scenarios, asking questions, and getting patients resources, too. “Nurses on our forensic team have spotted labor trafficking in patients who came in for something else,” she explains. “And our pediatric department has identified multiple high-risk patients, with quite a few ultimately having been trafficked.”

Healthcare providers may shy away from asking difficult questions, worry that their perceptions might be wrong, or not want to offend a patient—but training helps build their confidence. “There is nothing better than making a tough subject approachable and opening up dialogue around it,” Michelle says. “Healthcare providers come from all different areas and touch patients’ lives at different points and in different ways. Being able to talk to them about how they may encounter trafficking and what to do is exciting and rewarding.”

Many times, after we facilitate a training at a healthcare facility, we see an uptick in calls to our Human Trafficking Hotline. They’re coming from healthcare providers seeking resources for survivors, reporting a tip, or just wanting to talk through a situation that gave them pause. Kara sees this as a positive sign: “When people look at patients differently, think critically, respond in a more empathetic way, and adjust how they ask questions, it is so hopeful for future interactions.”

Sometimes, we even hear directly from trainees who have identified a potential case of human trafficking and provided the survivor with the support they needed. “Since I started facilitating these trainings in 2018, I’ve had dozens of people reach out in this way,” shares Kara. “Each story of an actual identification where someone receives the kind of support they were seeking is incredible. I hang onto those stories when this work gets hard.” This ripple effect of training is exactly what LCHT hopes for.

Survivor-Informed & Provider-Tested: Training That Inspires Long-Term Change

LCHT’s healthcare training is different from other trainings because it was built with input from both survivors and healthcare providers. Over years facilitating these trainings, the core pillars—diving into both labor and sex trafficking, using local examples, current trends and data, and offering practical tools—haven’t changed.

Content for this healthcare-specific training was originally developed in 2018. “It has evolved over the years as data and research on this intersection has grown considerably and resources available to survivors have expanded,” Kara explains. But the core of the training is still intact. The goal is for trainees to envision how this crime might show up for them in their setting and put the puzzle pieces together.

“I can watch the room while I’m facilitating and see what is resonating,” Kara says. “I truly enjoy those ‘aha’ moments when I see someone realize that they’ve seen this before, or they knew something was wrong but didn’t have the language to describe it. When I’m peppered with questions and stories from providers at the end of a presentation, I know I’ve got them thinking.”

After trainings, the learning continues. One important tool is LCHT’s Healthcare Protocol Toolkit, developed in collaboration with the Denver Anti-Trafficking Alliance (DATA). It helps hospitals and clinics develop their own internal response systems—a challenging process that can take months and sometimes years. There’s also a special page on LCHT’s website just for healthcare providers, full of resources, videos, and training materials. Training is just the beginning—the next step is putting that knowledge into action.

The Work Ahead: Training for Every Provider

Even with 15,000 healthcare professionals trained, there’s still tens of thousands more to reach. Colorado doesn’t currently require trafficking training for healthcare professionals. Six other states do. Hopefully, Colorado joins them soon. Many providers face packed schedules, high turnover, or a lack of institutional support, which makes training hard to prioritize. “Right now, we’re only reaching the people who choose to show up,” Kara explains. “We need to make sure every provider has this knowledge, not just the ones who seek it out.”

Widespread public awareness is needed, too. “Trafficking doesn’t only happen in big cities or ‘bad neighborhoods.’ It happens everywhere,” Michelle says. “Traffickers rely on the average person to not know what it is, and certainly, not recognize it.” If the public only thinks trafficking looks like what you see in the movies or fictitious social media posts, vulnerable people will continue to be exploited without the opportunity for help. 

Michelle continues, “The more informed and educated we are as a society, the more difficult we can make it for traffickers to continue to hurt vulnerable people. And perhaps the more likely we will see vulnerable people as people who deserve to be treated like ‘people’ and not disregarded or ‘othered’.”

As the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025, training healthcare workers remains a priority. The healthcare system can be a powerful line of defense—but only if providers are trained, supported, and ready to act. Jen concludes, “It’s not our job to ‘rescue’ people from any situation, but to provide resources that they can utilize if and when they feel safe to do so.”

Every trained provider could be the person who helps someone find safety. Here’s to a future where every survivor of human trafficking can access the compassionate care they need.

---

Want to help shape the next 20 years of Colorado’s anti-trafficking response? Here are three ways you can make a difference today: 

1. GET TRAINED: Whether you’re in healthcare or another frontline profession, LCHT’s trainings equip you and your team with the tools to recognize and respond to human trafficking. Learn how to support survivors and prevent future cases of this crime.
2. SPREAD THE WORD: Have you already been trained by LCHT? Tell a friend, colleague, or neighbor about our training opportunities. You never know who might meet a survivor in their everyday work and be in a position to intervene.
3. GIVE MONTHLY: A donation of $20/month can provide 15 frontline professionals each year with anti-trafficking training. You’ll empower them to recognize and respond to situations of exploitation in their workplace. We’re searching for 20 individuals to make a monthly pledge of $20/month in celebration of 20 years working to end anti-trafficking. Will you step up to the challenge? Make a meaningful difference for survivors and help end this crime for good.