Surgeons launch fund to help troubled teens into health careers
A team of Scottish surgeons that treats injuries caused
by violence has launched a fund to help some of the teenagers they
meet.
For the last three years the doctors, under the name Medics Against Violence, have been visiting
secondary schools to warn young people about the dangers of
fighting in the streets.
Each day at work the surgeons see first-hand the pain and
suffering caused by such violence.
They have now decided to go a step further and have
started fundraising to give study grants to ambitious teenagers who
lack backing from their families.
Mr Mark Devlin, a consultant surgeon, grew up in and
around Govan in Glasgow. Few people from his school joined him at
university, but in his first job at the Southern General hospital
he treated one former pupil for a drugs overdose and another for
alcohol withdrawal.
He said young men in the west of Scotland can suffer
because there are no positive male role models in their family or
ambition for their lives.
Mr Devlin said: "I remember one of my pals at school was a
very bright lad but his dad thought it was laughable to go to
university.
"Simply by virtue of that lack of ambition at home people
are given the notion that they do not have a choice in what they
do."
But this is not all about the doctors supporting young
people simply to do some good in the community. They believe health
care will benefit as well.
Group member Dr Christine Goodall, said: "Sometimes people
from a more deprived background, where they have first-hand
knowledge of the problems people face, make the best doctors.
Sometimes they can relate better to the patients."
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Surgeons launch fund to help troubled teens into health careers
The Scottish surgeons trying to change attitudes to
knife crime and street violence have been praised for their
successes.
In January this year Medics Against Violence were
recognised for their work in trying to show young people the harsh
realities of knife crime.
The team was awarded the Evening Times' Community
Champions Award for Public Service for their work in schools and
prisons in Strathclyde.
The original founders have now encouraged 120 doctors to
follow suit and give talks about knife crime and other acts of
violence.
During its first two years, Medics
Against Violence reached 5000 pupils and the initiative is
now being copied in other parts of Scotland and abroad.
It sends specialists from a range of hospital disciplines,
including accident and emergency, intensive care and neurosurgery,
into schools in the west of Scotland to talk about the consequences
of violence.
Their presentation includes a hard-hitting DVD which
features the mother of a boy whose throat was cut and a boy in
prison for murder.
The team is working with the Metropolitan Police to create
a similar scheme in areas of London and has been approached by
doctors in Jamaica who want to establish it there.
Evening Times editor Tony Carlin opened the award ceremony
in Glasgow earlier this year with the words: "Tonight is about the
people who make this city great. It's an opportunity to honour and
thank all those individuals and groups who selflessly work to make
Glasgow a better place."
Medics Against Violence
were commended for their work to put kids off joining gangs
or engaging in violence.
Christine Goodall, who founded the group, said when she
accepted the prize: "It's great to be awarded this prize, because
Medics Against Violence really is a team
effort."
Speaking before the award Ms Goodall told Evening Times
about her work in trying to expel some of the myths about
violence.
She said: "We find that kids think plastic surgery can
make scars go away. That's not true. You can disguise them, but not
make them go away. That's one of myths we try and bust.
"They think you will be stabbed in the buttock and you
will be fine. A number of people have been stabbed there and
died."
Although Goodall's message is primarily aimed at stopping
boys killing each other, she had tried to recruit girls, who often
carry weapons for the boys or egg them on.
She stressed that any positive move away from violence was
likely to be slow and said: "Most projects are geared towards long
term change, so it might be a few years until we see a
difference.
"These are generational changes. But if we all stand back
and don't do anything, nothing will change."
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