Part 1: Counting the casualties of violence at OMH
| This is the first in a three-part series of articles
about the many perspectives on the causes of violence at state mental
health facilities, how to prevent it and how best to cope when it
happens. Managers, employees, unions, patient representatives, and criminal justice officials shared their insights into this tragic problem at the 2007 Safe and Therapeutic Environment Leadership Symposium held March 19-20 in Saratoga Springs. This first article deals with the institutional and human cost of the problem. Articles in June and July will focus on the challenge of overcoming resistance to change at OMH, and lessons learned about workplace violence and prevention. |
By SHERRY HALBROOK
If you work for the state Office of Mental Health there’s a one-in-three chance
you’ll get hurt on the job this year.
That’s unacceptable, and people from throughout the agency are banding together
to change it.
In March, approximately 225 members and staff of PEF, the Civil Service
Employees Association (CSEA), the NYS Corrections Officers Benevolent Protective
Association (NYSCOPBA), patient representatives and state Office of Mental
Health (OMH) managers and others gathered in Saratoga Springs to try to assess
how bad the problem of violent incidents and injuries is at OMH worksites and
share ideas on prevention and how to cope if it happens.
Detailed data gathered by OMH and distributed at the 2007 Safe and Therapeutic
Environment Leadership Symposium revealed 5,243 on-the-job accidents last year
involving OMH employees — an average of one accident for every three of the
agency’s 16,000-plus employees.
Well over half of the accidents happened when patients assaulted staff or
patients were resisting restraint by staff members.
Workers’ Compensation costs for the resulting injuries in 2006 added up to an
estimated $28.8 million, but OMH is insulated from that financial pain, because
it doesn’t foot that bill.
OMH does endure the sting of the sky-high staff shortages, absentee and turnover
rates, overtime and training needs that result from the injuries.
The new head of OMH, Commissioner Michael Hogan, told the conferees, “We are the
ICU (intensive care unit) of the mental health system, where the patients with
the most serious needs come. Because they can come only when they pose an
immediate danger to themselves or others, that skews the system.”
Hogan said OMH cannot fulfill its responsibility to help mentally ill New
Yorkers recover unless both patients and staff feel safe in their shared
environment.
“Treatments can’t take hold, because people can’t heal unless they feel safe,”
Hogan said. “We have to respond to both (injured and traumatized) patients and
staff with more than just physical care. It’s a horrible thing to dedicate
yourself to this work and then get your face smashed in.”
Injured staff confirmed that.
PEF member Catherine Seguin told how hard it is to recover from the
psychological trauma of an on-the-job assault she experienced at St. Lawrence
Psychiatric Center. She returned to work after just eight weeks of recovery from
a beating that left her unconscious. She still bears the imprint of her
assailant’s sneaker on her chest from where he kicked her.
“Outwardly, you appear to be back to your normal life,” Seguin said. But, two
years later, she said she is still afraid to go out alone, even to the mall or
the grocery store.
Alex Southwell, a CSEA member at Bronx PC, was injured when he came to the aid
of a nurse who was being assaulted. After he returned to work, Southwell said,
“I seemed OK, but I was really traumatized. Now, my family assumes that if I’m
late coming home from work, I must be dead.”
PEF President Ken Brynien said PEF has provided special insurance coverage for
its members who are killed, assaulted, held hostage or kidnapped on the job.
“We get more claims from our members at OMH than from all other state agencies
combined,” Brynien said.
Now, he added, the groundwork is being laid for “making OMH a place where people
want to work” and for “building a national model” for safer mental health care
programs.
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