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A&E Work

Our Youth Violence Intervention Programme operates in hospital emergency departments. Our innovative service reduces serious youth violence, and has revolutionised the support available to young victims of violence.

Our Young Women's Service is embedded within our Youth Violence Intervention Programme and provides tailored support for young women affected by Child Sexual Exploitation, emotional or physical harm.

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A&E Work

Our Youth Violence Intervention Programme runs in hospital emergency departments in partnership with the major trauma network. There, our innovative service aims to reduce serious youth violence and has revolutionised the support available to young people affected by violence.

Our Young Women’s Service is embedded within our Youth Violence Intervention Programme but provides longer-term support in the lives of young women affected by sexual exploitation. Our young women’s workers work alongside our youth workers at St George’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital and Homerton University Hospital.

Every year thousands of young people aged 11 – 25 come through hospital doors as victims of assault and exploitation. It is then, at this time of crisis, that our youth workers and young women’s workers utilise their unique position embedded in the emergency departments alongside clinical staff to engage these young people.

Our extensive experience tells us that this moment of vulnerability, when young people are out of their comfort zone, alienated from their peers, and often coming to terms with the effects of injury, is a time of change – we call it the ‘Teachable Moment’. In this moment many are more able than ever to question what behaviour and choices have led them to this hospital bed and, with specialist youth worker support, pursue change they haven’t felt able to before.

We focus on this moment and encourage and support young people in making healthy choices and positive plans to disrupt the cruel cycle of violence that can too easily lead to re-attendance, re-injury, and devastated communities.

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London

London

King’s College Hospital, Lambeth

St George’s Hospital, Wandsworth

St Mary’s Hospital, Kensington and Chelsea

Homerton University Hospital, Hackney

University College Hospital, Camden

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich

University Hospital Lewisham, Lewisham

Croydon University Hospital, Croydon

Birmingham

Birmingham

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Heartlands Hospital

Birmingham Children’s Hospital

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

King’s Mill Hospital

Queen’s Medical Centre

 

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Young Women's Service

Our Young Women's Service (YWS) provides long-term support for girls and young women (aged 11-25) impacted or at risk of serious youth violence and criminal or sexual exploitation.

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Young Women's Service

In the last few years, we have seen increases in girls and young women being referred to the Young Womens’ Service, yet there are very few tailored services for girls and young women that are suitable for the complexity of the problems they face. The YWS supports girls and young women who come into hospital as a result of serious violence or exploitation and provides longer-term support.

Our young women’s workers work alongside our youth workers at St George’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital and Homerton University Hospital.

The London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), has enabled us to build on this work by embedding our work into daily practice across the organisation, supporting colleagues with complex cases and delivering training to clinical colleagues to ensure that signs of exploitation are spotted, and appropriate referrals made. We have also had support from Comic Relief.

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KAOS and other health-based youth work

Outside of our Youth Violence Intervention Programme we address other chronic conditions in partnership with other health-based youth work. These services continue to use health settings as key anchor institutions to engage with young people impacted by longer-term/chronic/life-altering health conditions. Specialist Redthread youth workers use a key teachable moment to support young people and provide a friendly, compassionate and trustworthy presence in a setting that can be isolating. Take a look at our KAOS, Social Prescribing and Diabetes service models.

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KAOS and other health-based youth work

On any day, across King’s College Hospital, around 20 adult beds are occupied by young people aged 16 to 25. These young people have specific medical, emotional, legal and social needs. The KAOS team will help support the medical and surgical teams on adult wards to care for young people in an age appropriate way.

The KAOS service started in 2018 and was initially comprised of a core team of two lead clinicians and a youth worker. The core team draw on the expertise of a wider team of over thirty health care professionals from different backgrounds, all with an interest in optimising care for young people.  These include trauma surgeons, doctors with an expertise in children/adolescents, women’s health doctors, specialist nurses, sexual health professionals and other medical specialists.  Since its launch in 2018 the service has grown to facilitate support for a wider age range with the addition of a further youth worker.

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KAOS

KAOS

The support offered by KAOS is different for every young person admitted to the hospital and personal to their situation; it is moulded around their health needs and wider goals. Listening and providing a non-judgemental, safe space is at the core of what the service does. The KAOS youth workers make an initial visit to the young person at their bed-side on the ward and engage them in a broad health-based conversation. This can touch on various issues, such as: mental and sexual health, alcohol and drugs, diet, sleep, nutrition, social media and safety. Depending on the length of admission, the youth workers will continue to visit them, working with their families and the medical team to support their immediate care and path to recovery and discharge.

The KAOS team consists of Redthread youth workers. The team is also supported by over 30 professionals across the King’s College Hospital site, representing a breadth of professions and specialities. Each day, the team will identify adolescent patients across the hospital, meet with these patients and work with their medical and surgical teams to ensure that their needs are being met not only physically, but also emotionally and socially.

The service is part of King’s College Hospital’ wider vision to become a young person friendly hospital by improving the suitability, accessibility, quality and safety of services for young people. 

Social Prescribing Service Nottingham

Social Prescribing Service Nottingham

Our Nottingham service at Queen Elizabeth Hospital offers holistic support and advocacy to young people (aged 11-24) with have long-term health conditions, who need support with their mental health, who are lonely or isolated or who have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing. The service helps connect young people to access support from their GP and reduce the burden on the emergency department.

Social Prescribing Service Hackney

Social Prescribing Service Hackney

Redthread has a Social Prescribing service for young people registered at GP  practices in the Well Street Common Practice Network in Hackney. A youth worker is placed within the local community to support young people who are at risk of or experiencing violence and exploitation, to help prevent the young person from experiencing further harm or from their harm escalating further. The service is run by a Senior Social Prescribing Youth Worker who is supported by the Team Leader at our Homerton University Hospital Redthread service.

This is a preventative service, whereby young people receive support before the need to present to A&E at a local hospital. By delivering a service within GP practices and the community, we can provide an earlier intervention in a young person’s trajectory towards violence, exploitation and crime, before this escalates into more severe harm.

Diabetes Service

Diabetes Service

Redthread’s Diabetes service model works in partnership with Queen Elizabeth Hospital Children and Young People’s Diabetes Team to increase young people’s access to diabetes services in the community and aid clinicians to better support children and young people with complex needs. A Redthread youth worker provides one-to-one support to young people aged 11-19 who have a diabetes diagnosis to empower them to better manage their illness, to build resilience, self-confidence and self-efficacy.

Amy's* Story

Amy's* Story

Amy had a rare gastrointestinal condition and was admitted to King’s to undergo several bowel procedures. A KAOS Youth Worker initially spoke to Amy over the phone, when the team were still working remotely. This support appeared to initially help Amy build up a trust and rapport with the Youth Worker, as she reported quite acute social anxiety when meeting new people face to face. The first few calls allowed Amy to express her worries about her physical health along with plans for the future. They provided her with a space to begin separating her different anxieties and factors influencing her mood. With the prospect of further investigations and uncertainty during her admission, the calls were also a chance for Amy to discuss relaxation techniques that she could utilise when going for scans. During this time, Amy also informed the Youth Worker that she had been waiting for a referral to be processed by CAMHS in her local area. The Youth Worker contacted this team and was able to update them on Amy’s current mood and concerns, and to ascertain when Amy’s support would begin.

When Amy was discharged, the KAOS Youth Worker continued to support Amy over a series of 4-6 sessions over the phone. During these calls, Amy and the Youth Worker explored goals that she felt could benefit her physical, social and mental health. As such, together they developed strategies that could help Amy’s sleep and eating pattern. Both factors Amy had wanted to work on for some time, but only now did she feel the strength and motivation to do so with the support of the KAOS team.

*Name and identifiable features have been changed.

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HIVE

The Hospital-based Interrupting Violence Exchange is a national network, founded and coordinated by Redthread.

HIVE

The Hospital-based Interrupting Violence Exchange is a national network, founded and coordinated by Redthread. It is designed to help existing and emerging hospital-based violence intervention programmes share ideas and insights.

Through HIVE, we have hosted teleconferences for practitioners from different projects and different parts of the UK to talk through the opportunities and challenges posed by the unique model. We also hold conferences, where all those working on the model get together to discuss the latest developments.

If you would like to learn more about HIVE, please get in touch!

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