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Building Safer Communities Visit HMYOI Polmont

The Board of Building Safer Communities recently visited Polmont and both Martin Johnstone, Building Safer Communities Board member and Secretary of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, and Wendy Wilkinson, Deputy Director for Safer Communities at Scottish Government, have blogged about their visit.

Their visit looked at a range of ongoing work happening at HMYOI Polmont, in particular the development of a cohesive response to bereavement trauma and loss issues. The response at Polmont includes access to services and supports like Open Secret (childhood abuse), Art therapy, Womens Aid (for domestic abuse), Seasons for Growth (group courses on bereavement run by chaplaincy) and the Barnardos assessment and intervention work just about to start.

HMYOI Polmont Governor, Sue Brookes, said “We will be running training for all staff on bereavement, trauma and attachment issues. Bereavement is a significant issue for young people who offend, both in respect of the volume of deaths and the traumatic nature of those deaths and is often a trigger for offending to start”

You can view Martin Johnstone’s blog article about his visit here.

You can view Wendy Wilkinson’s blog article about her visit here.