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The Violence Reduction Unit has adopted a public health approach to tackling violence in Scotland – the only country in the world to do so. 

It is estimated that around 3-6% of the health budget which would equate to over £500 million per year, is spent treating the victims of violence. The VRU is working with partners in health to develop tailored interventions that will prevent violence rather than just dealing with the consequences.

To enable us to identify the real levels of violence we are working with Emergency Departments to gather anonymous information about assaults to help us prevent further incidents. Read more about our Injury Surveillance (PDF, 60Kb) pilot in hospitals and our plans for national data collection.

We realise that when people are assaulted, particularly in the evening they are unlikely to report the incident to the police, firstly because they have to switch their phone off whilst in hospital and secondly because by the time they have been treated they are no longer motivated to make the call. To overcome this we have installed freephones in a number of Emergency Departments in an effort to increase reporting of violent crime and improve access to victim services.

We recently launched an alcohol and violence intervention with the Glasgow Dental Hospital to help patients recognise and avoid potentially violent events in the future.

As an extension of this we intend to work with partner organisations to trial COVAID (Control of Violence for Angry Impulsive Drinkers) (PDF, 50Kb) in a community based setting.

We also support local health departments in their work with Health Visitors who provide parenting and early years support to give parents the confidence to cope with the challenges parenting brings.