Updated, Jan. 12
Denise Schepici, president of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and Claire Seguin, vice president of operations, received the Healthcare Community Freedom Outreach Award at the second annual Freedom Gala for their work in preventing human trafficking on the Island.
The gala, held on Dec. 4 in Boston, was a benefit for the O’Connell House — a safe house in Massachusetts for women and children who have been victims of human trafficking. The benefit raised more than $440,000 for their continued care.
This award was given to Schepici and Seguin because of a training they helped spearhead in partnership with the O’Connell House and its founder, Deb O’Hara Rusckowski, in May 2024. Schepici and Seguin helped bring in more than 400 providers to participate in the event, making it Rusckowski’s largest collaboration thus far in the U.S.
The two hospital officials’ focus was on identifying victims of abuse who come into the hospital for medical treatment, or the delivery of a baby. Law enforcement officers and healthcare providers from across the Cape and Islands attended, seeking new ways to help their community and better their intervention techniques.
Seguin said in a statement that she got involved with this training in an effort to better combat these crimes on the Island. “Human trafficking is a worldwide issue that everyone should be aware of, even here on Martha’s Vineyard. At the hospital, we share Deb’s vision with the O’Connell House of creating an environment where any victim can be identified by educated providers, treated respectfully, and offered services to aid in their situation,” she said.
Rusckowski started her work combating human trafficking after a 30-year career as a critical care nurse. She now works closely with the U.N., Homeland Security, and law enforcement agencies across the country.
When Rusckowski was researching the most effective way to combat the crime — which she said affects more than 5 million people in the U.S. — she found that the training of law enforcement and healthcare professionals was a potential weak point.
“Eighty-eight to ninety-two percent of all survivors seek out medical care while they’re being trafficked,” Rusckowski said. “Sixty-eight percent go to the emergency departments … and oftentimes are accompanied by the traffickers.”
She noted that many individuals who were being trafficked and went to hospitals for care were often mistaken for victims of domestic violence, which changes the intervention by law enforcement significantly. Rusckowski’s experience has suggested that the more healthcare workers and law enforcement are informed on human trafficking, the more likely they are to intervene effectively.
According to District Attorney Rob Gilibois, there were more than 60 cases of human trafficking on the Cape and Islands from 2020 to 2023, a number that he said reflected just how underreported this crime is. The actual number of cases could be much higher, the DA reported, and the lack of recorded crimes may be related to minimal training of law enforcement and hospital staff on identifying these cases.
Rusckowski said there are no current statistics available for human trafficking on the Island alone, but she stated that it is absolutely a crime that occurs here. According to her, a more dominant issue on the Vineyard is labor trafficking, compared with the more common sex trafficking. She noted that sex trafficking has been reported on the Island as well. Rusckowski said that labor trafficking disproportionately affects the immigrant population on the Island, who may be more vulnerable to housing or income scams.
An example of labor trafficking would be a work opportunity that provides housing, then makes increased payment claims on the individual that force them to stay in that living situation and work off their perceived debt. “They get offered something too good to be true, and then they get into debt bondage,” Rusckowski clarified.
“This problem is so enormous,” Rusckowski said of human trafficking crimes throughout the country. “It’s one of those topics that people really don’t want to talk about … We were for years — decades really — trying to build awareness … [Now] we’re building awareness into doing something.”
“It’s a moral imperative that we do this,” Rusckowski added.
Schepici and Seguin agreed with Rusckowski’s vision. “We were inspired by Deb and her organization’s efforts to bring awareness and training to our community,” Schepici said in a statement to The Times.
“You need people knowledgeable enough and caring enough in the community — that’s why I [reached out to] Denise and Claire,” Ruskowski said.
In honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Month this January, Rusckowski expressed hope that safe houses become more commonplace in Massachusetts. She said these spaces provide an essential path to healing for individuals who have experienced this. As of now, there are only 650 beds throughout the country for victims of human trafficking, she said. The only documented safe locations for victims of this crime on the Island are Connect to End Violence and M.V. Community Services.
If you or someone you know has experienced human trafficking, call the hotline number 888-373-7888. For a local incident, call 911.
Updated to reflect the accurate amount of money raised during the benefit.
