Report from the OH&S Canada magazine (December 2016)
This report is an early report after the Ontario government had enacted violence and harassment legislation in 2010. Industrial and Construction sectors were already involved with V&H compliance but the healthcare sector was slow to get on board.
Report written by Jeff Cottrill, former news editor of the OH&S Canada magazine.
Representatives of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) have expressed their concern over an incident in which a patient attacked a registered nurse at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto.
On October 23, 2016, the female nurse was exiting a room at the facility when a male resident punched her in the face, dragged her into a locked utility room and kicked her in the head, according to an ONA statement. Another employee witnessed the attack and called for help. The ONA claims that CAMH did not notify the provincial labour ministry immediately after the attack as required by law.
“Our member might have been killed,” ONA first vice president Vicki McKenna says, adding that the attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents at CAMH.
In a statement dated October 26, 2016, Nancy Pridham, president of OPSEU local 500, blames CAMH executives for treating numerous violent incidents at the facility as acceptable occurrences. “Scarcely a day goes by without one of our members, or others working there, reporting some form of harassment, assault or violence,” she says.
The Centre was fined $80,000 this past summer for an incident in January 2014 in which a patient with a history of violence injured two workers. The OPSEU statement also cites CAMH incidents from earlier this year, such as a dining-room attack that left an employee with a concussion in April and a confrontation in which a patient broke a cleaner’s nose in August.
Also related to the issue of violence against healthcare workers, St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario has accepted all recommendations made in an external peer review following a litany of violent incidents against its employees less than a year ago. The hospital requested the review after a series of assaults on staff by patients in late 2015 and early this year, including the beating of two nurses on December 23, 2015, and a patient tossing boiling coffee at a registered practical nurse on January 12, 2016.
Published online on September 29, 2016, Approaches & Supports to Staff and Client Safety in the Mental Health In-Patient & Psychiatric Emergency Services concludes that the facility still has work to do to prevent violence from patients, even though it “has successfully advanced safety through a comprehensive set of policies, processes and programs” and established “a strong foundation for growth and the ability to adapt approaches to safety to meet the challenges of constant change in clinical, social and health-systems need.”
A supplement to the report lists the authors’ recommendations in five categories:
- Improving the workforces’ capacity for violence prevention and management;
- Standards of care, therapeutic environment and team effectiveness;
- Standards for post-incident response;
- Corporate safety oversight; and protecting employees.
Among the specific suggestions were better training, a task group to examine psychiatrist caseloads and upgrading nurses’ skills on mechanical restraints.
“Violence is never acceptable, and St. Joseph’s is working with its staff to become a leader in workplace safety,” St. Joseph’s president Dr. David Higgins says.
My opinion
Since this time, advances in healthcare safety have been accelerated. Mind you, there is still a long way to go. Supporting our frontline workers has never been so important.
If you work in the healthcare sector and have been involved with some sort of act of violence, or suffer from chronic harassment, I would suggest to tell you certified worker rep., your supervisor, or call the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD), at 1-877-202-0008 on their emergency hotline.
HRS Group Inc. has a great team that can help you with all your health and safety needs. Contact Deborah toll free at 1-877-907-7744 or locally at 705-749-1259.
Ensure your workplace is a safe place.
Remember – In Ontario, “ALL Accidents are Preventable”
‘Work’ and ‘Play’ safe.
Daniel L. Beal
CHSEP – Advanced Level
CEO & Senior Trainer
HRS Group Inc.