Oconto Falls – On Monday, April 22, local health and public safety experts will lead a community presentation at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital about human trafficking. Human trafficking is a widespread and evolving crime in the United States and abroad that affects both urban and rural communities.
“It is important for rural communities to get informed because we often assume our children and families are isolated from major crimes,” said Dr. Amy Romandine Kratz, a family medicine physician at the HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Prevea Oconto Falls Health Center. “Traffickers don’t discriminate geographically and some specifically target rural areas because they can often go undetected.”
Dr. Romandine Kratz along with Jamie Kuhn, Detective at the Oconto Falls Police Department and Oconto Falls School Resource Officer, and Shelby Mitchell, a Sex Trafficking Victim Advocate at Family Services Sexual Assault Center NE Wisconsin, will provide an educational presentation for the community to learn:
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Human trafficking definitions and trends
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Facts and statistics about human trafficking
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How the human trafficking pandemic is impacting us locally
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Human trafficking warning signs and risk factors
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Importance of screening during doctor visits
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Common misconceptions about human trafficking
Event Details
The free event is open to adults, and teenagers and pre-teens age 12 and up with a parent or guardian present. Food and beverages will be provided. Registration is required online by April 15 at www.stclarememorial.org/ under “Classes, Groups & Events.” For more information, call (920) 848-6329.
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About HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital
HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital serves Oconto Falls and the surrounding communities as a federally-designated critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency department, urgent care, general, vascular and orthopedic surgical services, inpatient and outpatient surgical and diagnostic services, rehabilitation, oncology outpatient clinic and women’s care. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital, in affiliation with Prevea Health, has six regional health center locations in Gillett, Lena, Mountain, Oconto, Oconto Falls and Suring. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Pharmacies are located in Gillett and Oconto Falls. Founded in 1921 as Community Memorial Hospital, in 2014, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital became the fourteenth hospital in Hospital Sisters Health System. As an affiliate of Hospital Sisters Health System, we draw on the history of St. Francis of Assisi as we move to continue serving the health care needs of our area in Christ’s healing ministry, caring for all people. For more information about St. Clare, visit www.stclarememorial.org.
About Hospital Sisters Health System
Hospital Sisters Health System’s (HSHS) mission is to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our high quality, Franciscan health care ministry. HSHS provides state-of-the-art health care to our patients and is dedicated to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, at each of our 15 Local Systems and physician practices in Illinois (Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Greenville, Highland, Litchfield, O’Fallon, Shelbyville and Springfield) and Wisconsin (Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Oconto Falls, Sheboygan, and two in Green Bay). HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries. For more information about HSHS, visit www.hshs.org/. For more information about Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, visit www.hospitalsisters.org/.