Identifying Human Trafficking Victims on a Psychiatry Inpatient Service: a Case Series

Human trafficking is a serious and prevalent human rights violation that closely intersects with mental health. Limited empirical attention has been paid to the presentations and identification of trafficking victims in psychiatric settings. The primary goal of this paper is to describe the varied presentations of trafficking victims on an urban inpatient psychiatric unit. A literature review was conducted to identify relevant empirical articles to inform our examination of cases. Adult inpatient cases meeting criteria for known or possible human trafficking were systematically identified and illustrative cases were described. Six cases were identified including one male and five females. Two had been labor trafficked and four were suspected or confirmed to have been sex trafficked. The cases demonstrated a tremendous diversity of demographic and psychiatric identifying factors. These cases indicate the importance of routinely screening for trafficking victims in inpatient psychiatry settings. Identification of cases is a requisite step in providing informed and evidence-based treatments and enabling the secondary prevention of re-exploitation. Additional research is warranted given the limited current empirical research on this topic area.