Be like Heidi

Many times, when Alison Phillips and I are training or consulting with agencies, sometimes it seems daunting to them, new skills, new subject matter, a new approach, but what we always tell them is that is just takes ONE.?One person can have an enormous impact on an agency, a jurisdiction, a city or even a state.?

In 2015, Heidi Olson, who is the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program Manager for a large hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, believed they were missing juveniles who were being sexually exploited or trafficked.?She began building a screening process along with a training program for nurses and staff.?As the training and screening process began to be utilized, more and more juveniles began being identified as possible victims.?The numbers went from (2) in 2015, to seventeen (17) in 2016, then (29) the next year, (39) in 2018 and (62) in 2019.?

This is when I met Heidi.?Alison Phillips introduced us at a lunch meeting and Heidi discussed their program and explained as mandated reporters they were reporting these juveniles who screened positive to the social services hotline and per hospital protocol to local law enforcement.?Heidi advised that they had also been reporting them to a federal law enforcement agency, but that she was not satisfied with this agency’s customer service.?Heidi explained that this agency had only actually been to the hospital a handful of times in the 5 years they had been reporting to them and that they never received any feedback.?Heidi was concerned they were not actually investigating anything and did not want possible victims falling through the cracks. ?Heidi asked if they could start reporting to the state along with local police.?I advised Heidi they were a private hospital and as long as they were complying with the mandated reporter law, they could report to anyone they wish.?Within a week, I started getting phone calls from nurses and social workers from Heidi’s team about juveniles that had indicators consistent with victims of trafficking or exploitation.?

From these calls, we began assisting local agencies and investigating some of the cases independently.?Numerous juveniles were discovered to be victims of exploitation, trafficking, or sexual abuse.?Others appeared not to have been victims but had numerous vulnerabilities that made them very susceptible for exploitation and trafficking.?These juveniles and or families were offered services and victim advocates to try and prevent future exploitation.?

One example of the types of cases that we received from Heidi was a 14-year-old male who appeared overly sexualized for his age, had runaway in the past, was depressed, was using alcohol and drugs and was chatting and exchanging nude images with adult males online.?Upon receiving the information from Heidi’s team, we discovered that numerous adult males were chatting with the juvenile online and that several had traveled to meet the juvenile in person and committed statutory rape.?Some had also created CSAM of the juvenile during these meetings.?The juvenile also disclosed that he had been sexually molested by a family member from ages 7-9.?He stated that he had disclosed the abuse at age 10 to family and local police, but law enforcement discounted the allegation when the suspect made a denial.?As the investigation continued it was discovered that this suspect had sexually abused the juvenile along with three other children as well.?This victim had been through so much trauma for so many years that after the suspect was arrested and charged, the victim broke a bottle and cut his throat.?Fortunately, he survived.

There was the 15-year-old female living with her grandmother who was being trafficked, the 13-year-old female living with her mother who was being trafficked, the 12-year-old female from Honduras who was pregnant and being trafficked, they go on and on and on.?Since I also received the tips from the National Human Trafficking Hotline, I could see that Heidi and her team was the only hospital in Missouri that was reporting to the National Human Trafficking hotline.?They were reporting more than any other group, agency, or organization in the state.??They identified so many possible victims that according to Polaris, from 2014-2020, cases in Missouri increased approximately 40%.?Heidi moved the needle in Missouri, she changed how things were being done at her hospital. You can make a difference, it only takes ONE, so BE THE ONE, be like Heidi.??