BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — A bill in the state legislature looks to help emergency room workers identify and appropriately treat victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse.
(D-Opelousas), would create a Human Trafficking in Emergency Departments Task Force that would write a “uniform protocol for human trafficking which shall include information about signs of human trafficking and appropriate response.”
“Basically, what we’re doing is trying to bridge the gap between emergency health care and trauma informed care for trafficking victims,” Miller said.
Miller, who works in the health care field as a nurse, said many victims of human trafficking end up in emergency rooms. He said the initial inspiration for this bill was a lack of a game plan for healthcare workers to help suspected victims that come to the emergency room, especially since the person trafficking them can typically be at the hospital with their victim.
“Whoever is trafficking them is also either in the room or outside waiting for them to get out,” Miller said. “(The Victim) can be scared to say anything because then that person can do some harm to them. But the physician didn’t have a tool to hold a patient.”
While the initial bill would these victims to be temporarily held until proper caregivers and authorities could arrive, Miller said that approach was too aggressive, leading to the idea for the task force to find a better strategy.
“We’re involving a task force that’s going to get involved and work with the local regional LDH departments and collaborate with the same nurses, etc., to figure out what is the best path forward,” he said. “If they suspect someone is being human trafficking that’s come into the emergency room, what tools that they need to help the patient?”
The amended bill was passed by the Senate today, and heads to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk for final approval.
State rep. Dustin miller (d-opelousas) spoke about the proposed bill hb359.
By rssfeeds-admin 