Opinion: From the frontline - Youth workers have a place inhospitals
John Poyton
Thursday, September 6, 2007
When the British Medical Association (BMA) described the state of adolescent health in the country as "a potential time bomb" four years ago, there was a direct call for healthcare services specifically for teenagers.
Earlier this year, medical journal The Lancet reviewed the progress of adolescent health services in the intervening period and concluded that not much had improved. Young people still have to access healthcare that is focused primarily at very young children in paediatric departments or attend less than youth-friendly doctors' surgeries.
However, after running one of the first young people's clinics six years ago and after setting up the first accident and emergency department specifically for young people, I am convinced that youth workers have a huge role to play in the health of adolescents. In fact, if they don't it will be an opportunity missed.
The current crop of property TV shows talk about the importance of "location, location, location" when buying a home and, for me, the same idiom is true for youth work. Young people need services in places they attend.
Yet four years on from the BMA's wake-up call, it is still rare to hear of, let alone see, youth workers working in hospitals or GP surgeries.
These locations are the frontline where the supposedly substance abusing, self-harming, overweight, binge drinking and risk-taking young people are stitched up, patched up, tested, treated and discharged. Even the very word "discharged" indicates the lack of follow up these young people receive.
Primary and secondary healthcare is, therefore, an ideal location for youth workers to engage young people and enable them to make posi- tive choices.
Doctors have between seven and 10 minutes to spend with a patient. During this time they must familiarise themselves with the patient's notes, listen to their most private concerns, make a diagnosis and then treat them. In old youth work terms, that is not even enough time for a decent chat around the pool table. That is why youth workers have to get involved. They can play a support role that the medical professional has neither the time, nor expertise to provide.
- John Poyton is founder and youth work manager of the Youth Health Initiative, a partnership between youth charity Redthread, Paxton Green Health Centre and King's College Hospital. www.adolescenthealth.co.uk.
