A 15-year-old is wheeled into The Alfred hospital's trauma unit after a machete fight. His injuries are serious, but he'll survive. Now, instead of just stitching him up and sending him back to the streets, a youth worker will be at his bedside, ready to talk about housing, drug rehab, or getting back into school.
This is the idea behind Victoria's new $2.5 million hospital pilot program — the first of its kind in Australia, and possibly the southern hemisphere. From later this year, youth workers and mentors will be embedded in trauma units at The Alfred and Royal Children's hospitals in Melbourne. They'll target young people admitted after violent incidents like gang attacks or machete brawls.
Violence Reduction Minister Sonya Kilkenny announced the program on Sunday, saying it draws on similar initiatives in the UK and US that have shown success in curbing youth crime. The pilot is funded for two years and will include six social workers and mentors.
"It's drawing on those models that are known to work," Kilkenny said. "We are tailoring them to Victoria, and we're going to roll this out as a nation-leading project under our Violence Reduction Unit to get in early, to intervene, to be able to access that critical window when these young people come into our trauma services, and try to change the trajectory of their lives."
The numbers explain why this is urgent. Victoria is dealing with its highest crime rate since 2016, driven largely by youth offenders. They now account for more than half of all carjackings, home invasions and robberies in the state. Youth crime rose about 2 per cent in 2025, despite police arresting 1223 children a combined 6997 times and seizing a record 17,400 knives and machetes.
Professor Mark Fitzgerald, director of trauma services at The Alfred, has seen the damage firsthand. He said the hospital saves these kids from the immediate crisis but doesn't rescue their lives. He estimates the program could help 20 to 30 per cent of them build a future based on reality, not violence.
"We don't actually rescue their lives; we just save them from that moment," Fitzgerald said.
Shayne Hood, CEO of 16 Yards — one of the youth services involved in the pilot, along with the Youth Support and Advocacy Service — said many young people feel lost and cling to dangerous "hyper-identities." His organisation pairs at-risk kids with reformed offenders. One of those mentors is a man named Kuol, who spent time in custody before turning his life around through mentorship.
"I can tell them that I've been in that position, so I have the correct advice to navigate them out of that life because I'm living proof that I made it out," Kuol said. "A lot of young people have low self-esteem, and they don't believe in themselves. I just help them believe in themselves and let them know that you are meant to be greater, you are worth more."
Kuol said a hospital stay often delivers a reality check, giving mentors a chance to intervene. Associate Professor Joseph Mathew, deputy director of trauma services at The Alfred and one of the pilot's architects, calls that window "a teachable moment and a reachable moment."
"Trauma specialists encounter these young people at their most vulnerable moment, as they recover. We see a window where they are receptive, they are open," Mathew said.
The support goes beyond a chat. Workers will help young people access housing, alcohol and drug services, or pathways into work and study while they recover. Mathew hopes to eventually roll the program out to all hospitals in Victoria. He describes it as a model for the rest of the country.