[Healthandsafety] Ont. nursing home residents routinely attacking staff

["Barry Doyle" <bdoyle@cupe.ca>]

Ont. nursing home residents routinely attacking staff
Last Updated: Monday, October 22, 2007 | 9:05 AM ET 
CBC News 
Attacks by residents against staff at Ontario nursing homes have more than doubled in the past four years - turning the residences into high-risk places of work, a CBC News investigation has found.

Government documents obtained by the CBC show nursing home residents routinely assault the staff, as well as beat each other up. But warnings and complaints go unheeded.

In one example, Mary Jane Briones, a registered nurse at a Toronto-area nursing home, was attacked by a nursing home resident with advanced dementia who had a history of hitting and punching fellow residents and staff.

"I was terrified," Briones said. "She approached me from behind ... and put her hands around my neck."

Briones escaped serious injury, but others have been injured by escalating violence in nursing homes.

In another example outlined in the documents, Nancy Mueller's 89-year-old mother Belva was bullied and beaten at her nursing home by a male resident. But administrators there didn't remove him from the residence until he hit a staff member.

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Data obtained from Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-term Care show the number of such serious incidents reported rose to 358 in 2006, compared with 155 in 2002.

Those numbers only include what the ministry calls "unusual occurrences" or serious events that put residents' lives in danger.

The data also compile violent acts among long-term care residents, which have tripled in Ontario in the past four years. CBC's investigation found homes were often short-staffed and suffering from high turnover as workers fled the low-paying, high pressure jobs.

Expert calls for government action
The problem is so acute that the Ontario Ministry of Labour is now targeting nursing homes for beefed-up inspections.

Ministries in provinces such as British Columbia are taking similar steps to deal with the increasing number of workers forced to take time off after being assaulted.

Ken LeClair, a Queen's University professor of geriatric psychiatry and co-chair of the Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health, is urging the government to act on the issue.

"The first step that I think would be very useful is if we had a federal, provincial and territorial summit ... ministries, service providers, community agencies ... consumer groups to begin to shine the light on this," he said.

Furthermore, national standards need to be established on how to handle violent residents, he said.

"We need to perhaps take a look at having some facility with higher levels of services for individuals with significant and persistent behavioural difficulties," he added.
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Barry Doyle
Senior Officer, Health and Safety
Canadian Union of Public Employees
21 Florence St. 
Ottawa, ON K2P 0W6
o.613-237-1590 x289
f. 613-233-3438
bdoyle@cupe.ca
www.cupe.ca

CUPE will be relocating effective November 13, 2007
Our new address will be 1375 St. Laurent Blvd.
Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7
Telephone and fax numbers remain the same