Clients, staff hurt in mental hygiene facilities
Health-care workers call for safe staffing


By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
They’re getting hurt, instead of getting helped, and often, the workers who care for them are being hurt too.

That’s the message from registered nurses, social workers, rehabilitation specialists and other PEF members testifying at a state Assembly hearing in Utica in November. It is the first of a series of three hearings into safety and security issues at state-run facilities — such as the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center (MVPC) and the Central New York Developmental Disabilities Services Office (DDSO).

They’re telling state lawmakers that inadequate safety and staffing mean many mentally-ill and developmentally-disabled patients are not getting the treatment and therapy they need to recover. And, they recount the trauma of being injured on the job.

Jill Dangler testifies that she was working as a registered nurse in the Admission Unit at Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center when she was suddenly and viciously attacked by a patient, who had just been transferred from Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center.

“After attempting to strangle me, he (the patient) repeatedly punched my face, causing my head to hit the wall at each blow,” Dangler tells the Assembly committee. “He repeatedly kicked my body as I lay on the floor. It was another patient who heard the attack and intervened to save my life.”

Staff cuts, client changes

The PEF leaders are giving testimony showing the safety problems stem largely from a dramatic change in the patient population and years of staff cuts. To underscore the severity of the problem, PEF Legislative Director Brian Curran precedes his testimony by giving the Assembly members some medicine vials — PEF’s “prescription for safe staffing” — to be a visual reminder of the need to relieve staff of mandatory overtime and unsafe staffing levels.

The bottles are filled with candy, but Curran’s message is not sugar-coated.

“Increasingly in OMH facilities, we’ve gone from a largely geriatric population of clients to one that is younger and has histories of violence, crime, multiple substance abuse and health problems,” says Curran. “More difficult patients need more intensive, specialized staffing care.

“The challenges inherent in providing quality treatment to a disabled population are heightened by the constant threat of bodily injury,” Curran continues. “And the same conditions that create an unsafe environment for staff also contribute to an unsafe and non-therapeutic environment for patients.”

“Despite our skills and dedication, we are struggling to provide the treatment and services that our clients need because we just do not have enough people,” adds PEF Region 6 Coordinator Michael DelPiano, a habilitation specialist at Central New York DDSO. DelPiano urges the committee to revise and pass legislation requiring safe and therapeutic staffing levels in facilities run by the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) and Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD).

An analysis of OMH accident reports shows that, on average, every 90 minutes an OMH employee is hurt on the job. There is no similar data for OMRDD facilities, as that agency tells PEF it does not keep track of accident and incident reports for all of its employees.

Policies hurt clients

Several other PEF health-care workers also tell the lawmakers about the assaults they have endured or seen on the job in state OMH and OMRDD facilities. And, they say, they and their clients are increasingly in danger.

“I have seen angry patients pick up a smaller child and throw him against a wall,” says Karen Lekki-Flint, a certified psychiatric nurse at the Pinefield Children and Youth unit of MVPC. “On September 21, I was assaulted by a 17-year-old girl who repeatedly hit me in the face, causing a fracture of my nose. We need to be concerned about safety at Pinefield and other mental-health facilities.”

And Lekki-Flint’s co-worker, social worker Colleen Kanniainen testifies that while working at Pinefield she has “witnessed many occasions where children ... hurt themselves or staff.” She blames the problem on the shortage of staff in OMH and that agency’s policy to severely limit the use of restraint and seclusion to respond to patients’ violent outbursts. That combination, she says, creates a chaotic atmosphere.

“When chaos and disorder are common in a children’s psychiatric ward, it is neither safe nor therapeutic,” says Kanniainen. “We need increased staffing to provide a safe environment and diffuse escalating behaviors.”

Besides giving testimony, PEF will work with legislators to pass bills aimed at improving safety and staffing, and to ensure that the state Division of Budget allows vacant jobs to be filled.

A PICTURE IS WORTH... — PEF nurses Rhonda Bedow and Jill Dangler, both badly beaten by clients in separate incidents at their psychiatric centers, are featured in this full-page ad in the December issue of Empire State Report magazine. The union hopes the ad will help get better legislation to protect workers and clients.

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