Helping to tackle violence

Street violence and knife crime has been hitting the headlines all too frequently in recent years as more and more young people are getting caught up in the devastating impact it is having across communities within our towns and cities in the North West.

With the increase in ambulance staff attending these type of fatal and distressing incidents, Advanced Paramedic Kirsten McDermott, through her work with the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, took the opportunity last autumn to partner up with the charity StreetDoctors to deliver their StepWise programme to students aged 17 to 18 at Oldham College.

The programme was created by StreetDoctors and teaches young people emergency life-saving skills with a focus on injuries sustained from stabbings. The course also provided young people with information about their legal rights if they get caught up in a violent situation,

builds their social and emotional skills and by the end of the course they receive a first aid at work qualification so they can then to deliver first aid training to their peers.

The 10-week course was funded via proceeds of crime through Greater Manchester Police and was the first time StreetDoctors had provided the course outside of London.

Kirsten recruited a team of fellow paramedics and emergency medical technician volunteers to help deliver the sessions at Oldham College and explains why it was so important:

“This was the first time the ambulance service had been fully involved. Normally it is student doctors or student nurses that volunteer but when StreetDoctors pitched this, I said it’s a really good opportunity for the ambulance service to be promoted and actually assist and have that community engagement with young people.

“Not only were we giving them life-saving skills of how to put pressure on wounds if someone was stabbed but we were able to break down some of the concerns that they have if someone was stabbed, such as would they get in trouble. We were able to answer real questions they had but also teach them what they needed to know to keep themselves and their friends safe.”

Scott McAughtrie was one of the paramedics that decided to volunteer alongside Kirsten to help teach the course each Wednesday afternoon in Oldham. He was struck when talking to the students at just how many of them knew others that carried a knife and how tragically many had already been caught up in violence of some kind. He explains why he decided to take part in teaching the course:

“Street violence obviously is a big thing, no matter where you are in Manchester. Knife crime is quite high and just having the chance to make a difference to a group of young adults, with my knowledge, that can only better them for the future.”

The students that took part in the course were studying either health and social care or uniformed studies and so did already have an interest in a career in the NHS or with the police or fire services. However, throughout the programme they learned more about the professional work of paramedics and as they practiced on realistic prosthetics depicting various types of wounds and scenarios. As Scott says, this helped to ignite their imagination to consider a future career in the ambulance service:

“Just showing them what we do from the inside changed people’s minds. They wanted to be paramedics, they realised what such a good job it is and the satisfaction we get from caring for people.

And we could see that coming out in them as well because they were showing their caring side, even though it was a dummy on the floor or even one of their peers on the floor putting a bandage on them, they showed their caring nature. It wasn’t just thrown on them and they weren’t just there for the time, they wanted to learn.”

At the end of the course the students graduated with a special ceremony and Kirsten says why she felt so humbled and proud to be part of it: “It brought back to me why I wear this uniform and why I do my job. It’s not just necessarily about saving lives but inspiring young people to make better choices for the future and stay away from violence. We’re not going to stop it but hopefully we can give them the tools to make better choices for themselves."

Kirsten and Scott, along with a team of other NWAS paramedics and EMTs are continuing to engage with young people by visiting schools and colleges with the GM Navigator project. Teaching and supporting young people with those first aid skills and delivering prevention activity.