Imperial College Healthcare Charity Impact report 2015/2016

Members of the Redthread team
youth project supported
A by the Major Trauma
Centre Appeal is helping
young people who have
been involved in violence to
turn their lives around.
The youth violence
intervention project at
St Mary’s, run by youth
work charity Redthread,
sees specialist youth
workers connecting with
victims while they are still
in hospital.
Robbyn Linden,
Redthread programme
manager, said: “Research
has suggested there is a
‘teachable moment’ where
if you can get to a young
person when this
traumatic event has just
happened, you can help
them make different
choices. If the interaction
happens later then the
moment has been lost.”
In its first year at St Mary’s
Hospital, the project
successfully engaged with
354 young people. The
majority (61 per cent)
of the young people
risk-assessed directly
witnessed violence
regularly or occasionally
and 20 per cent said they
initiated violence. But
thanks to the project,
some of these young
people’s involvement with
violence had reduced
six months later.
The project also
found 21 per cent of the
young people assessed
were regularly or
occasionally participating
in crime, but this
reduced for some young
people six months after
their first contact with
Redthread.
John Reece, Redthread
team leader at St Mary’s
Hospital, remembered
helping a teenager who
was clinically dead and
was brought back to life.
The 16-year-old’s
teachable moment came
when John asked him
‘what would a 25-year-old
you say if he was looking
at you?’.
John said: “He had
never considered what
that might be like, or if
he would get that far. He
became really hard on
himself and said, ‘I’d say
what am I doing, I can’t
believe I’m doing this,’ and
it really made him stop and
think. I could sense a shift
in the way he was.
“The bravado stopped,
and he allowed himself to
think about what he might
have. He said he wanted to
have a job, to have a wife,
to have children – quite
young to have all those
things, but that’s what
he wanted. And I think
he found it hard to think
about all those things
as a 16-year-old that
was involved in so much
violence.”
The 16-year-old is now
at college and not getting
into trouble.
Giving a new lease of life
to the Birth Centre
“I gave birth to my second
son here in 2014 before the
renovations, and visited
again while I was expecting
my daughter in February
2016 after most of the work
had taken place. There was
no comparison. It used to be
outdated but now it’s a
home from home. It feels
new and much more
relaxing.”
Mother-of-three Noirin
McCarthy, pictured with
daughter Maisie Kelly
Your donations have
helped to complete
state-of-the-art
refurbishments at the Birth
Centre in one of London’s
busiest maternity units.
Developments were
needed in the Birth Centre at
Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea
Hospital in West London
after the number of births
there increased from 700 to
900 in the space of a year.
As a result, the charity
launched a £500,000 appeal
to help create a new birth
room with en suite facilities,
renovate the six existing birth
rooms, install two new birthing
pools, and install resuscitation
units for newborns into every
birth room.
The appeal also saw the
creation of a new reception
area, a new antenatal
waiting area and birth
preparation room, as
well as an antenatal
assessment room.
Consultant midwife,
Pauline Cooke, said:
“The renovations
have given a
new feel to
the place,
which
complements the excellent
care we give.
“The new room means
the number of births taking
place in the Birth Centre
can increase from 16 per
cent of all births at Queen
Charlotte’s to 20 per cent.
“The resuscitation units
mean that if we need to, we
can resuscitate the baby in
the room with the parents
rather than taking the baby
out to the corridor where
the resuscitation unit was.
It doesn’t happen often
but when it does it’s very
worrying for the parents
to see their baby being
whisked away in those
precious moments just
after the birth.”
Pauline also said the
new birthing pools fill
quicker than the old ones,
the new reception area
means women can be
greeted as soon as they
walk in the door and
new double beds in the
refurbished rooms allow
families to spend their
first hours together.
The Birth Centre had
not been renovated since
it was opened in 2001. The
work has now brought it
up to the standard of St
Mary’s Birth Centre, which
the charity also renovated
through your donations
in 2008.
12 IMPERIAL COLLEGE HEALTHCARE CHARITY IMPACT REPORT 2015/2016 IMPERIAL COLLEGE HEALTHCARE CHARITY IMPACT REPORT 2015/2016 13