Protecting young people at risk of knife crime
An innovative project called ‘YourStance’ has been set up to teach young people at risk of serious youth violence, life-saving skills.
With growing rates of serious youth violence, emergency department staff around the UK regularly witness the shocking impact of knife related injuries on young people.
At The Royal London Hospital, one of London’s largest trauma centres, 1,824 young people aged under 25 have received emergency care for knife related wounds.
Ana Waddington, Emergency Department Sister at The Royal London Hospital felt a sense of helplessness and frustration with the increasing presentations of young people to the department and her inability to prevent them from happening.
She was inspired to set up YourStance, a project which is run entirely by medical volunteers to teach young people at risk of serious youth violence, life-saving skills when faced with an emergency.
Wanting to reduce the significance of injuries coming through the emergency door, the aim of the workshops is to teach young people CPR, Basic Life support and haemorrhage control, and to educate them on consequences of knife related injuries.
“Being able to talk and teach young people directly was wonderful,” said a medical volunteer working on the project. “We were able to hear their experiences and teach them what may well be life-saving knowledge. They left feeling more confident about how to administer first aid and basic life support.”
The project has had a positive impact in the community, and now runs in various locations such as Feltham HMP, Pentonville HMP, East London Provision schools, as well as various youth hubs, and outreach sessions in Hackney.