Leading Aged Services Australia recently published the following article to their website.
Aged Care Workers Facing Violence and Aggression: New Study
A new national report has been released by Holland Thomas.
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 uses data from the period 9 December 2013 to 4 April 2014. The 1,059 respondents who completed the survey came from 256 organisations Australia wide.
Of all respondents 85% of were direct care workers, with the remaining 15% managers.
Of alkl reported incidents, only 4.4% of those involving aggression and/or violence resulted in the staff member lodging a claim for workers compensation.
Most of the incidents involving aggression and/or violence involved only minimal harm, however, 9% of incidents occuring in the last 30 days involved assault.
30% of incidents that involved aggression and/or violence resulted in the worker suffering a psychological injury.
The study found that workers with 20 or more years’ experience expereinced almost three times more incidents involving aggression and/or violence than workers with less than two years’ experience.
Of serious concern is the majority of survey respondents believe incidents involving aggression and/or violence is on the rise.
The study was developed to raise awareness and start a conversation of how to work with people with challenging behaviours while keeping staff safe.
Read the full survey findings here
Click here to see this article as first published on the LASA Website