Domestic minor sex trafficking: Utilizing an identification tool to screen for commercial sexual exploitation of children in a community health center

The incidence and prevalence of domestic minor victims of sex trafficking (DMST) in the US is difficult to determine, due to the hidden and underground nature of the sexual exploitation.  Strategies to identify and capture the full scope of the problem often rely on data provided from the criminal justice system, without capturing the scope of victims who have not interfaced with the justice system.  The health system is one sector where commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) may seek care prior to interfacing with the criminal justice system.  This presentation will describe a four-prong approach by a community health center to identify and provide services to DMST/CSEC without utilizing the criminal justice system.  The four-prong approach includes a reproductive health youth program, a Teen Clinic for reproductive health care, a youth development organization, and the school-based health centers affiliated with the community health center.  Asian Health Services (a community health center) and Banteay Srei (the youth development organization serving at risk youth) created an identification tool to screen youth for commercial sexual exploitation at service delivery points and developed referral protocols to provide additional care for youth who are sexually exploited.  This presentation will also discuss the creation of the identification tool and analyze findings from an exhaustive chart review of patients seeking care at the teen clinic: 12% of youth screened in the teen clinic had some form of sexual exploitation, while 28% of youth patients were screened.