The Navigators service has been running in the Emergency Department (ED) at Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) for a year this month. The Navigators is an Emergency Department-based peer support programme that operates in seven Emergency Departments across Scotland that has offered support to nearly 3000 patients. The service launched in Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 2015 and is run by the healthcare charity Medics against Violence with support from the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and our NHS partners. Navigators aim to target patients attending the ED due to violence and a wide variety of complex social issues including alcohol and drug misuse, homelessness, domestic abuse and mental wellbeing.
Navigators are support workers with a combination of lived and professional experience. Two Navigators work in each hospital alongside the ED staff on busy weekend nightshifts to provide support to their target groups of patients while they are in the ED and they continue that support in the community on discharge from hospital. Being in the ED when patients are brought in allows them to take advantage of the 'reachable moment' a time when people may be ready to accept support and contemplate change. They aim to ultimately connect people with community supports, both statutory and third sector, that will work best for them and help them to address some of the issues they face but will provide Navigator support for as long as is needed.
During COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown period, the Navigators worked outside the hospital both in the community and via a helpline that allowed them to continue to provide support to new and existing patients referred by their ED colleagues. They often found themselves delivering essential supplies to those unable to leave home and supporting patients to online recovery meetings. On their return to the ED in July they have been as busy as ever. Over the time they have been working, staff have noted numerous positive benefits of having them as part of the ED team noting the calming effect they have on patients who might otherwise be disruptive and reduced attendances by some of the patients who attend most frequently.
Since they started work in RAH Navigators Jim and Selma have supported nearly 200 patients and some of the quotes below show just how much patients and their relatives value the service.
RAH Navigators have been locally funded for the past year by our Renfrewshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership and they have just received the news that funding has been secured for a further year with support coming from the Renfrewshire ADP and the NHSGGC Clyde Acute Sector.
We sadly say goodbye to Navigator Selma who is leaving for a post nearer home in Ayrshire. She will be replaced by Navigator Danny. You can spot Jim and Danny easily in the ED in their bright pink uniforms.
We look forward to a further year working with the Navigators.
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