2. West Midlands Violence Prevention Alliance
Role:
To encourage and support partners in taking a public health approach to prevention
Advocacy across the system for the impact possible from each partner playing a part
Examples of work:
Built a regional Injury Surveillance system
MVP prevention programme into schools
Working with partners to develop the use of health settings to identify harm & intervene
PH approach: recognises violence isn’t inevitable; there are interventions which reduce the likelihood of violence and improve health and education outcomes
An aim is encouraging and developing evidence based practice
Injury surveillance team is based in the PHE syndromic surveillance team, it draws in data from a varitety of sources, currently including A&E, hospital admissions and police, to give a fuller picture of violence across our communities. Aim to extend the data input sources. Partners then use to inform responses, whether licensing or community safety needs.
MVP (mentors in violence prevention) is a leadership programme for school pupils, focusing on preventing the attitudes and beliefs behind violence and bullying, particularly gender based violence. By using peer mentors to deliver sessions, the approach is to address all pupils as leaders and shapers who can have a proactive positive impact on their environments, challenging harmful attitudes and leading by example
- particularly positive feedback from headteachers on the impact and examples of how they’ve been embedding the approach and values across the whole school
Health settings – eg working with partners to plan collaborative resourcing of interventions like the
IRIS scheme (linking DA advocates to GP surgeries , increasing identification & getting appropriate support for victims who disclose,
Working with UHB to plan how to use A&Es to identify patients with underlying harm factors and supporting the patients to take steps towards addressing those issues (successful models elsewhere)