PEARR: Treating abuse and violence victims, step by step

Holly Austin Gibbs has been the director of Dignity Health’s Human Trafficking Response Program since 2015. She is also a survivor of child sex trafficking, recovered by law enforcement when she was 14. After her rescue, she was taken to an emergency department for assessment.

“What I remember most about this experience,” she says, “is that I was left alone in a room—I felt very isolated. The healthcare staff didn’t talk to me. I felt like they were disgusted by me, like I wasn’t worth their time. In reality, the staff probably didn’t know what to say to me.”

The Dignity Health system, HEAL Trafficking, and the Pacific Survivor Center teamed up to create a tool that could identify and care for victims/survivors of any form of abuse, neglect, or violence, including human trafficking. Together, they published the PEARR Tool, a suite of procedures to guide providers in providing assistance to possible abuse victims.

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