Publish date: 25 October 2021
Mersey Care is supporting European Health and Safety week between 25 and 29 October 2021.
The Trust has a duty of care to each of its employees, ensuring as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of all members of staff and others including contractors, public, visitors, patients, and students. It is the Health and Safety team’s’ responsibility to provide the knowledge, support, and tools to help the Trust achieve this, following Laws which have been created for the purpose to protect people from getting injured or becoming ill at work.
All members of staff also have responsibilities to ensure we follow measures introduced by the Trust, which are in place to protect you, your colleagues, patient’s visitors and many more.
Day 1: Violence and Aggression
We all have the potential to become victims of crime, violence, and abuse and we are all more likely to become a victim if we don’t remain you. To increase your own personal safety awareness, you may wish to consider the following personal safety strategies:
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AAP Awareness: |
By remaining aware of what is happening it may give you the necessary time to remove yourself from a potentially dangerous situation or, better still, prevent you from getting into that situation in the first place |
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Assess: |
Situations change constantly and you should be continually assessing what is going on around you |
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Planning: |
‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’. This area is by far the most important area for consideration but often receives the least attention. Sometimes the simplest plans are the best. Some things you may wish to plan could include your journey, exit strategies, escape routes etc, all of which can assist in extracting you from a potentially difficult situation. |
If you have to deal with conflict or aggression, whether verbal or physical please follow your training (what training – have all staff done it? If not we should signpost to where people can get their training), always keep your distance and if you have an alarm pull it or activate your Lone Working Device. The Trust’s Lone working management policy can be found here on our Policies and procedures page.
Unfortunately, as the figures suggest, incidents do occur, and it’s very important that they are reported. In all instances you should follow the Trust’s incident reporting policy. Every member of staff has a duty of care not to themselves and to other colleaguesto report incidents including ‘near misses.
After an incident:
- Allow yourself time to recover, seek practical support from your colleagues and manager
- Inform your manager and, if appropriate, contact the police
- Seek proper medical attention for any physical injuries. Whilst your health is paramount your injuries will also be documented by the doctor, providing evidence in any subsequent proceedings
- Return to base if practical
- Report all incidents through the formal reporting procedures
- Wherever possible institute a formal case review
- Try to identify where control was lost and how, so that practice and training can be improved accordingly
- Share the information with others who work in the area or visit the address/client and if appropriate, add information to the client’s file
- Be prepared for natural post-trauma reactions. Even after very minor incidents, feelings may be difficult to control and may affect your ability to deal with any further problems that may arise. This is a natural reaction; if in doubt, take time out
- Ask for a debriefing and further counselling if post-trauma reactions continue
- Please make your Local Security Management Specialist (LSMS) aware of the incident and please complete a Datix or a Ulysses.
If you need additional support or advice, please contact your LSMS by emailing the Health and Safety Team Safety