Report: Youth Volunteers in Empathy Project: Hertfordshire

“Empathy Project Volunteers alongside YC Hertfordshire Youth Workers support young people coming through Children’s Emergency Departments (CED)or A&E, whether they present with a sprained ankle or low mood because they are being bullied. More importantly, volunteers are trained to know that this might be one and the same patient. Medical staff will do a tremendous job sorting out the ankle but on a busy shift, they may struggle to find the time to chat and learn more about their patient. In such a scenario the patient’s sprained ankle will be fixed but they will go home with their social and emotional needs still broken….until they present again, this time needing to see the Crisis Assessment Treatment Team.
For young patients and their families… A&E or CED can be an incredibly stressful and challenging place. A friendly chat with someone their own age can make all the difference to their experience in hospital and to their immediate outcomes and we have seen that parents also highly value the additional support and comfort both they and their child are offered through this peer to peer support project.”

Other resources that might be of interest:

• Running Youth Volunteering Programmes within the NHS – The Good and the Ugly
• Webinar recording – Running Youth Volunteering Programmes within the NHS – The Good and the Ugly
• A nurse-led youth volunteering project to support older people on acute hospital wards
• Youth Volunteering Programme at Torbay and South Devon
  
• Tips to support young volunteers
• Role profile: Youth Volunteer Executive
• Toolkit: Youth Volunteering and Social Action in Health & Social Care SECOND EDITION