Mental worker safety

Regarding your series on mental health reform:

You are driving into work when you realize you can't even drive properly because your neck and back are sore from the agitated patient you dealt with at work. The patient is safe, he didn't harm himself, but your coworkers received punches, were spit on and had flesh torn from bites.

Your stiff neck is a mere scratch compared with one employee whose neck was broken.

There have been reports of patient abuse at our state's psychiatric hospitals. Let me shed some light on the numbers of worker injuries: The OSHA Safety Log 300 numbers from Broughton Hospital for 2007 show there were 154 cases of workplace injuries; 149 of these cases were due to injury resulting from interventions. These injuries caused workers to miss 6,396 days of work, amounting to an average of more than 40 days per incident.

Broughton Hospital created new policies to reduce the number of interventions following a failed inspection in August that brought the denial of federal funding. There has been a dramatic reduction in patients involved in interventions. However, the concerns for staff safety are overlooked due to understaffing. The results are harmful for patients and workers.

Megan Young

Lawndale