December is DRESSember at Imagine Healthcare 

Ketamine clinic joins nationwide event to raise awareness and collect donations for victims of human trafficking

Chicago - November 28, 2022 - For the last five years, Dr. Rachel Norris, owner and founder of Imagine Healthcare, Chicago’s only woman-owned ketamine clinic, has traded in her scrubs for dresses during the month of December. 

Dr. Norris is a longtime supporter and  advocate of Dressember, an awareness raising and fundraising organization fighting to end human trafficking. 

Celebrating its10th anniversary, Dressember was started by Blythe Hill after she began to learn the depths of the human trafficking industry. In 2009 while still in college, she challenged herself to wear a dress every day in December to raise awareness of human trafficking and Dressember was born. In 2013, over 1200 participants around the world joined Blythe in her efforts and a movement began. Since then, the campaign has raised over $16 million. 

The Dressember organization resources prevention, advocacy, intervention, and survivor empowerment programs simultaneously to address root causes and acknowledge changing systems impacting human trafficking. More than a fashion event, Dressember views itself as a really visual social movement. Fundraising efforts support the organization to attack human trafficking from multiple angles.

Norris first learned of the nonprofit organization via Instagram in 2018. “I’ve always considered myself to be very lucky. Wearing a dress for thirty days during a Chicago winter seemed the least I could do to help the millions of victims of human trafficking.” Norris was amazed by the outpouring of donations on her behalf to Dressember by friends, family and even perfect strangers.

“I am a physician and a fairly practical person and dresses were just never part of my work wardrobe. But wearing one every day in December, I found that I was able to spark a lot of conversations about trafficking when people asked me why I wasn’t wearing scrubs or jeans. Before becoming an advocate, I knew little about human trafficking.  To say what I have learned about the extent of sex trafficking and human slavery in the world today, is disturbing doesn’t even crack the surface”. 

Victims of human trafficking are at high risk for developing PTSD, a condition that ketamine can be utilized to help treat. As Norris shifted to working with primarily mental health clients, she encountered more and more people whose history involved trafficking in one form or another. “Some of the life stories that clients have shared with me are truly the stuff of nightmares. It’s just horrific. Yet, they survived. Their courage and strength is simply amazing to me.”

Severe stress states such as PTSD, life-long depression and chronic pain can impair multiple brain functions and physically damage connections in the brain. Ketamine acts on the NMDA receptors to increase glutamate levels and to put it simply, the increase of glutamate in the brain is thought to be what accounts for the rapid positive effect on mood disorders while it also helps to repair, strengthen and even regrow connections that provide long term benefit in helping to change the way we process information and emotions.

Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry and, as of 2021, 50 million people worldwide are living in situations of sex trafficking, forced labor, and debt bondage. According to the CDC, traffickers most commonly target vulnerable populations such as homeless youth, migrant workers, LGBTQ individuals, those with substance abuse disorders, people with disabilities, individuals who have been in the foster care system and more. 

“The victims of human trafficking are often those without a voice in society. We can be their voice. I’ve always viewed being a business owner as a privilege and with that privilege comes a responsibility to serve both the local and global community”, says Norris. “Dressember started with one woman’s dream. It is a modern-day testimony to how one person can truly make a difference.”

Throughout Dressember, Norris and the Imagine Team will be donning dresses (and ties) to raise awareness and funds. Clients who would like to donate new or gently worn clothing items can receive a discount off their service. All clothing donations will go directly to organizations that work with victims such as the Salvation Army and their STOP-IT Initiative Against Human trafficking. 

Supporters can follow along on Imagine Healthcare’s social media (Facebook and Instagram) and on the hashtags #dressember2022 and #itsstillbiggerthanadress.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is a 24-hour, toll-free, multilingual anti-trafficking hotline. Call 1-888-373-7888 to report a tip, connect with anti-trafficking services, or request training and technical assistance, general information, or specific anti-trafficking resources. The US State Department also offers straight-forward tips and resources for consumers who are concerned about human trafficking here, including trauma-informed business and education practices, learning the signs of human trafficking and host-to-host awareness-raising events.