Hospital Navigators Scheme

Nationally, there has been an increase of individuals presenting at Emergency departments (ED) or walk-in centres due to incidents of assault and serious violence.

UK Youth (Harnessing Lived Experience, Oct 2019) reported between 2014-2018 there was an increase in serious violence by 51% in under 18s. Scotland and London have seen the highest rates of serious violence and in response have commissioned third sector charities into health settings. A multi-agency approach to tackling violence involving third sector charities or volunteers could be instrumental to the public health approach to serious tackling violence.

TVP are also seeing a trend with an increase of patients presenting at Emergency Departments (ED) or walk-in centres due to incidents of serious violence. The main factors for this are violence within the under 25’s demographic or domestic abuse related violence. In a bid to tackle the causes of the causes of violence, the other areas in the country have seen the use of community representatives to gain trust and support those involved in serious violence.

The Hospital Navigators will build trust with patients who present at hospital because of existing issues including substance abuse, mental health issues, poor diet or personal care and violence itself.

When in hospital, there is a reachable moment when the patient can be reflective and open to intervention.  A volunteer in a dedicated Navigator role would ask for consent to refer the patient onto a third sector organisation who can provide the specialist support. This moment could help divert the patient back out into the community on a different pathway.  The volunteer would put them in contact with a local support agency that provide support navigating them back into the community, building resilience and offer mentoring in an attempt to prevent further incidents which could lead them back into hospital.