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Mrs Sara Wood

North West Public Health Observatory, Behavioural Epidemiology

Senior Public Health Researcher/Analyst - Violence and Injury and NWPHO

e-mail Tel No: 0151 231 4359

I am a researcher with the Centre for Public Health and I am involved in a range of local and international research projects that focus on injuries and violence. With funding from the Government Office North West, I am currently writing a series of 11 reviews on injury and violence prevention for non-specialist public health professionals. Within this I am collating data on injuries and violence from a variety of sources (HES, mortality, police, fire and rescue services, A&E departments) at a PCT and LA level for the North West of England.

Other current projects include co-ordinating an evaluation of the Youth Crime Action Plan (YCAP) project in Liverpool. YCAP offers a range of initatives designed to address anti-social behaviour and crime among young people. This includes, for instance After School Patrols (police officers patrol popular school routes at school lunchtimes and finishing times); Street Based Teams (members of the fire service engage with young people on the streets on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, offering advice and support); and Operation Staysafe (vulnerable young people on the streets are picked up and taken to a safe location, where a trained worker carries out a risk and needs assessment and parents are called to collect the child). I am also involved in the European project Healthy Nightlife Toolbox. This is a web-based tool for professionals working in nightlife and offers them information and guidance on how to create healthy nightlife settings.

Prior to this, I have been involved in: writing a series of evidence reviews for the WHO on what works to prevent violence, reviews on the association of alcohol and different types of violence (e.g. intimate partner violence, child maltreatment), and exploring levels of drinking and smoking, and risk factors for these behaviours, in children aged 11-15 in the North West of England.