Improving mental health and lifestyle outcomes in a hospital emergency department based youth violence intervention Jeffrey DeMarco, Yael llan-Clarke, Amanda Bunn, Tom Isaac, John Criddle, Gillian Holdsworth and Antonia Bifulco The authors affiliations can be found at the end of this article. Abstract Purpose – Current government policy aims to tackle youth anti-social behaviour and its psychological and social impacts. Given an increased likelihood that young victims of crime are also likely to engage in aggressive or deviant behaviour and to have psychological and social difficulties, interventions are needed which access vulnerable youth with adverse lifestyles to increase well-being and reduce offending. The current project utilised a hospital emergency department (ED) as an appropriate location to identify and interact with youth victims of violent crime; to support key lifestyle risk and mental health difficulties; and build resilience. The purpose of this paper is to use a youth work paradigm, to target vulnerable youth in a health setting at a crisis point where intervention may have a higher chance of uptake. Design/methodology/approach – The study applied a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design. Using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire and the “What Do You Think” component of the ASSET risk assessment, data were collected from 120 youth aged 12-20, at baseline with 66 youth who successfully completed the programme with assessments at baseline and follow-up, at an average of 14 weeks. Findings – There was significant reduction in both psychological problems and lifestyle risk at follow-up. Research limitations/implications – These findings support the government initiative to intervene in youth violence in healthcare settings. Challenges revolve around increasing participation and greater formalisation of the intervention. Originality/value – The youth work led violence intervention in the ED is successfully tackling psychological problems and lifestyle risk following injury. Keywords Evaluation, Risk factors, Injury, Adolescence, Conduct disorder Paper type Research paper Introduction Adolescents are at a greater risk of involvement with violence whether as an offender or victim, with increased risk of recurrent violent encounters (Borowsky and Ireland, 2004; Cunningham et al., 2015). Adolescence is thus an optimum point for intervention and preventative work (Buka et al., 2001). Whilst risk of violence is highly associated with social deprivation and neighbourhood risks, resilience factors such as parental attachment, community involvement and neighbourhood engagement mitigate to assist in the protection from further anti-social victimisation (Khouri-Kassabri et al., 2004). Nonetheless, the need to explore alternative options for the more marginalised and excluded youth populations nationally is seen as a priority in Received 15 July 2015 Revised 15 February 2016 16 June 2016 Accepted 16 June 2016 Funding for three years (July 2013- July 2016) of the service was achieved through Southwark and Lambeth local councils and the Metropolitan Police; Southwark Youth Services were forthcoming in funding half of the three year term. The rest of the funding for the three years came from Lambeth Community Safety team, London Met Police and Lambeth and Southwark PCT. Additional funding for the project extension was granted from the underspend in the pilot phase by Guy’s and St Thomas Trust. The authors would like to acknowledge all of the support provided by the volunteers at the Oasis Trust in Waterloo, the Emergency Department staff and Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital and the young people themselves for participating in the intervention. DOI 10.1108/JPMH-07-2015-0031 VOL. 15 NO. 3 2016, pp. 119-133, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729 j JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH j PAGE 119