Helping young stay safe

Youth workers are now working at Salford Royal hospital’s Accident and Emergency department to keep young people safe from violence.

GM Navigator is a Greater Manchester wide project bringing together youth workers and NHS staff to support vulnerable young people aged 10 to 25 who go to hospital with a violence-related injury.

The Navigators will work with the young person for up to six weeks, helping them to access local support networks and prevent further violence.

The project has been commissioned by the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and is being delivered by the Oasis charity.

Nathan Griffiths, Consultant Nurse in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at Salford Royal, said: “When a young person comes to our emergency department with an injury they’ve suffered due to violence, the youth workers will be assigned to appropriate patients to understand more about the reasons they were involved in violence with a view to preventing that happening again.”

Between April 2018 and March 2020 there were nearly 1,000 attendances at Greater Manchester A&E departments by under 18s as a result of assault, nearly 90 of which were due to assault with a knife.