Imagine going to work knowing you will experience some form of workplace violence on a daily or weekly basis. It would have obvious impacts on your health and wellbeing, not to mention job satisfaction.
Author
- Katherine Ravenswood
Professor of Industrial Relations, Auckland University of Technology
But according to my latest research , nearly 80% of New Zealand's vital support workers in home and community care, mental health, addiction and disability services experience some workplace violence.
Workplace violence covers any form of behaviour that causes physical, emotional or sexual harm. For service occupations such as community support workers, the violence might come from a client, colleague, manager or even a member of the public.
These people are crucial frontline health workers in local communities, but their work is often invisible to policy makers and society. And there are big gaps in how employers address the problems they face.
The work is complex, providing support to a range of clients, often working alone or in very small teams, mostly in people's homes. Workers have little control over the environment - including the people who live with clients.
It's well known that healthcare professionals in hospitals face regular aggression from patients . But much less is known about support workers in the community who lack immediately available backup or support.
The physical and psychological toll
My research shows psychological violence is most common: 85.3% of respondents experienced bullying, threats, intimidation or verbal abuse from clients or people in the client's household.
But 72.5% of the support workers surveyed have also experienced psychological abuse from colleagues and/or managers at least once in the past five years.
Physical violence is slightly less common, but 67.9% experienced workplace violence from clients or people in a client's household. More than a quarter (27.1%) experienced physical violence from colleagues and/or managers.
Internationally, research shows women are more likely to experience some violence at work. My survey fits that pattern, showing just how common violence is in these female-dominated sectors.
Over half the workers surveyed (51.4%) experienced sexual harassment from clients at least once, and 40.8% experienced sexual violence from clients at least once.
Discrimination underpins some workplace violence, too. Just over one third (34.5%) reported psychological violence targeting their gender. Nearly half of Māori (47.2%), and more than half (59.6%) of those identifying as another ethnicity other than Pākehā/European, reported psychological violence targeting their ethnicity.
Internationally, the economic cost of workplace violence has been estimated at over $US50 billion annually , reflecting its impacts on mental and physical health.
Nearly half those surveyed for our study reported feeling anxious or depressed in the long term, and just over a quarter reported difficulty sleeping or eating. Some reported alcohol or drug use related to work stress, and negative impacts on physical health or personal relationships after experiencing violence at work.
An end to tolerating violence
A majority of support workers said they are encouraged to report workplace violence incidents. But there are still big gaps in how employers address the problem.
As one respondent noted, clearer information and training is needed for workers: "We need to know how to address it, how to report it, what to do to keep ourselves safe, how to avoid it."
There is a also clear need for training in how to deescalate and prevent violent situations: 44.4% of respondents reported no specific training offered to new employees; 53.3% reported a lack of refresher training.
Managers identified the cost and availability of training resources as a major challenge. More than half of the support workers surveyed felt they were expected to tolerate workplace violence as part of the job.
Making frontline services safer for workers and clients starts with creating a general expectation that workplace violence will not be tolerated in frontline healthcare services.
A safety culture needs good resourcing and regular training to support workers with the skills to deescalate violent situations when possible, and to judge when leaving a situation is the best option.
Guidelines for employers should address the specific challenges of isolated work in communities where clients and work environments are often more complex than in standard healthcare settings.
Finally, chronic underfunding in these sectors has to be addressed. This in turn will only come from a recognition of these workers as central to the frontline healthcare system.
It will be much harder to tolerate violence against a workforce that is no longer overlooked and misunderstood .
Katherine Ravenswood received funding from the NZ Industrial Relations Foundation which is administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
