DPS News recently publish the following article:
Majority of aged care staff assaults left ‘unreported’
A new report has revealed that half of the aged and community care industry, who had one or more incidents involving aggression and/or violence during the past 30 days, did not report the incidents.
Travis Holland (Photo) is the managing director of specialist training and consulting firm Holland Thomas, which conducted the Home Care, Community Care and Outreach Staff Safety Survey 2013.
The National Report: Home Care, Community Care and Outreach Staff Safety Survey 2013, presents the findings from a survey where respondents reported on their experience during the previous 30 days regarding the nature, frequency and impact of incidents of aggression and violence specific to home care, community care and outreach roles across aged care, disability, family and youth, mental health and other sectors.
The survey was conducted by specialist training and consulting firm Holland Thomas from 9 December 2013 to 4 April 2014. The 1,059 respondents who completed the survey came from 256 organisations Australia wide.
Only about 4.4% of reported incidents involving aggression and/or violence resulted in the staff member submitting a claim for workers compensation.
About 85% of respondents were direct care workers, with the remaining 15% being managers and area managers.
While the majority of incidents involving aggression and/or violence resulted in minimal physical harm, at least 9% of incidents during the past 30 days involved assault.
About 30% of incidents involving aggression and/or violence during the past 30 days resulted in the worker suffering a psychological injury.
Respondents with 20 or more years’ experience averaged almost three times more incidents involving aggression and/or violence than respondents with less than two years’ experience.
The majority of respondents think the number and seriousness of incidents involving aggression and/or violence is on the rise.
The purpose of the survey was to promote the conversation around the safety challenges of managing aggression and violence and the competing priorities of staff safety and client care.
Read the full survey findings here
Click here to see this article as first published in DPS News