Figures highlight NHS violence

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Title – Figures highlight NHS violence
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 28th October 2004

A figure such as 68% of all injuries in this workplace (NHS) being as a result if aggression and violence from patients is staggering and should make all of us stand up and question the society in which we live. A society that allows this to happen against those people who have dedicated themselves to the protection and well being of others.

Employers from every sector of the workforce, be they related to the NHS or not, have a responsibility to ensure that they protect their staff. There are many ways of achieving this result, you can increase the physical presence of security staff or the police, you can restrict access to the place of work and you can use modern technologies such as increased CCTV, panic alarms and remote access protection.

We believe that before you consider any of these measures you should consider empowering your staff first. Our Conflict Management & Resolution Course (CMR) will help all those attending to resolve situations before they become aggressive or violent, we concentrate on communication skills and look at the body language as well as other signs and symptoms that can help you to recognise the signals of aggression or violence and therefore give you a head start when it comes to dealing with them.We also recognise that aggression and violence can be at a level already where the point of using your skills to deescalate the situation are useless, as the aggressor has passed the point of comprehension. It is at this stage that there may be a requirement to physically protect yourself from violence and remove yourself from the situation before receiving an injury. Our Physical Intervention course (PI) covers the use of break-away, disengagement and where required restraint techniques. We only teach 'low impact' techniques to allow you to remove yourself from the aggressive situation and call for the help of colleagues or specifically trained staff, such as security guards or the police. We believe that these techniques, that don’t rely on size or strength but rather on your ability to stay calm and to think your way out of the situation, are ideal for dealing with Workplace Violence as they don’t require individuals to use such methods as pre-emptive strikes which take a great deal of practice and if you don’t get them right can lead to further force being used against you.

Please Visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk