Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center launched a new effort Wednesday to identify and help victims of domestic violence and human trafficking in Santa Fe.

Domestic violence and human trafficking are hidden problems in the City Different. Victims don't like to talk. Their neighbors and co-workers might be afraid to ask. It will take a coordinated community effort to help the victims, according to hospital officials and an assistant attorney general who spoke to three dozen victim advocates, health care providers and law enforcement officers at the meeting.

By September, the hospital will hire a new domestic violence medical advocate and facilitator who will manage services for victims and train all 2,000 hospital employees to recognize the signs of domestic violence, according to chief executive officer Alex Valdez.

Domestic violence is among the top five community health issues Christus St. Vincent will focus on in the future, Valdez said. "Historically, the hospital has not done a good job of addressing domestic violence issues," Valdez said.

"This is a new discussion for us," Valdez added. "It is driven by community need."

Maria Sanchez-Gagne, assistant attorney general and director of the Border Violence Division, talked about the similarities between domestic violence and human trafficking and how service providers can be the first people victims trust enough to confide in.

Sanchez-Gagne has traveled the state to educate people about the growing problems of human trafficking.

Until 2008, New Mexico was one of the few states that lacked a human trafficking law. Now the state has a law that defines human trafficking and establishes criminal penalties for violators.

Finding victims who will testify is a big challenge. "Our victims are fragile," she said. "They are fearful and they don't want to come forward."

Many people confuse smuggling and human trafficking, she told the group. The difference: Human smugglers are paid to bring someone across the U.S. border and then the person is on their own.

Human traffickers exploit people for money. They use fraud or coercion to gain control over their victims and keep them against their will through fear or abuse.

Their victims can be immigrants or U.S. citizens. "I would say half our cases under investigation involve immigrant victims. The other half are from the U.S.," Sanchez-Gagne said.

Victims of domestic violence and human trafficking share many similar traits. They live in a "state of fear." They may be beaten, raped, burned or have violence threatened against other members of their family if they don't comply with the person controlling them.

The difference is financial gain, Sanchez-Gagne said. A trafficking victim is considered a "modern-day slave," exploited to work for someone else. "Trafficking victims are often misidentified as domestic violence victims," she said.

Trafficking victims may be in plain sight, but no one sees them. They may be exploited as cooks, janitors, retail clerks, maids, nannies, prostitutes or field workers, among other jobs.

One of the big problems for health care providers is getting a suspected victim of domestic violence or trafficking alone and willing to talk. Often the person doing the abuse or trafficking insists on staying with the victim and doing the talking.

The training session was the quarterly meeting of the Santa Fe Coordinated Community Response Council to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. The group meets the second Monday of each month at various locations around the city.

For more information, contact Carol A. Horwitz, Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Coordinator for the city of Santa Fe at 955-5018 or cahorwitz@santafenm.gov.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.