RedThread
Deliverables: Ongoing Critical Incident Support • Compassionate Presence & Practice
Redthread’s Youth Violence Intervention Programme runs in hospital emergency departments in partnership with the major trauma network. There, their innovative service aims to reduce serious youth violence and has revolutionised the support available to young victims of violence.
The Challenge
100+
participants trained through the Trauma- Awareness Programme
BECOMING TRAUMA-INFORMED IN DELIVERING VOLUNTARY SERVICES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN MAJOR TRAUMA CENTRES AND MAINTAINING STAFF WELLBEING
The client organisation achieved exponential growth in a short time and faced the need to recruit and train new staff quickly. Further, the complexity of the work that the client staff would be undertaking, within significant trauma centres and hospital emergency departments, also increased at a similar speed.
If the Children & Young People attending A&E were and continue to meet with people who practice a compassionate response to their trauma, this starts the young people off towards post- traumatic growth. The opposite is true if children & young people meet people who aren’t compassionate - evidence showing that it increases the likelihood of the children & young people becoming traumatised. The paramount problem this creates is a lack of engagement for A&E practitioners with the young people.
Firstly, young people’s experience of A&E is reported ‘hostile’, which translates into what services generally refer to as ‘hard to reach young people’. Secondly, downstream services find it much harder to engage with young people which creates the cycle of re-attendance at A&E, especially for young people presenting there because of serious youth violence.
The severe escalating youth violence in London especially, and even in the Midlands where the client had secured new contracts, means that the Redthread youth workers were, and continue being exposed to more young people with more severe conditions. All the while Redthread themselves do not have equivalent training as clinical staff in the hospital emergency departments and major trauma centres. As such this poses serious questions around staff wellbeing, with it being of paramount importance, and the significant role this plays in maintaining low staff turnover essential for a range of operational reasons.
“Every one of our staff loves the iCoN programme! There is no other programme that makes this material so clear and easy to understand.”
5
emergency departments in the Major Trauma Network engaged
The Solution
ADOPTING AND IMPLEMENTING COMPASSIONATE PRESENCE AS A CORE DRIVER IN REDTHREAD’S ETHOS, PROCEDURES & PRACTICES
We introduced Redthread, as the organisation in its entirety, to the concept of Compassionate Presence, and guided their adoption and implementation of this philosophy in governing their ethos, procedures and practice.
Training all staff over a short period allowed the organisation to develop a shared understanding of “trauma” and the impact trauma has on the young people presenting in the emergency departments as well as the impact of supporting such people by the Redthread staff. The training programme provided the opportunity to develop the vital building blocks for organisational transformation to achieve Redthread’s vision - #TeachableMoment.
We helped the organisation to define the balance between staff wellbeing and increasing exposure to distressed young people in emergency departments and major trauma centres. Application of organisational review affords the organisation to maintain focus on crucial qualitative elements of individual, group and corporate performance.
Our Partnership
• All senior management & 120 staff trained
• Ongoing monthly Clinical Supervision
• Regular induction programmes for new staff
The Result
‘COMPASSIONATE PRESENCE’ TO GENERATE #TEACHABLEMOMENTS
All of Redthread's senior management team along with 120 staff were trained in the principles of Trauma-Informed and Attachment-Based practice.
We continue to provide three induction programmes for all Redthread staff per year, introducing new staff to the ethos of Trauma-Informed Practice and Compassionate Presence.
We continually provide 4 days of Clinical Supervision per month to 50% of Redthread’s staff, in keeping with the adopted principles of Trauma-Informed and Attachment-Based practice.
We engendered a greater reference to the principle of Compassionate Presence in Redthread’s internal discussions and ethos, reflective of its incorporation in Redthread’s core drivers.
As a direct result of our work with Redthread, they espouse the notion of Compassionate Practice as demonstrable in their work.
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