Lone Worker Protection For Mental Health Workers Using Gps Tracking

A regional Mental Health Trust in the UK has around 2000 staff including psychologists

, nurses, doctors, and other health professionals. Around half of the total staff work within the community or make home visits, and are often in the situation of being a lone worker. All these staff are mobile and most travel between appointments using cars.

The Trust provides mental health care, and its facilities range from inpatient wards to community mental health centres. It also provides many other services such as forensic services and help with eating disorders.

These lone workers face a variety of risks in their day to day work, including:

* Staff need to attend inner city regions where the chances of experiencing violence are greater.

* Staff often have to visit clients in tower blocks or other similar buildings. Sometimes lifts are poorly lit and there are concealed spaces. Also, the public have access to buildings where staff may be working late at night.

* Many violent incidents occur in the evening and at staff changeover times. Doctors may have to visit peoples' homes late at night and sometimes require police support if there is increased risk.

* Doctors, community psychiatric nurses and community nurses might be believed to be carrying drugs and may therefore be targets for assault.

* Most of the people who have some kind of mental illness are not violent but unfortunately a few do sometimes act violently as a result of their mental illness.

* Withholding treatment can put both staff and members of the public at risk of violence and abuse.

Some typical examples of incidents that staff have reported include:

* Physical assaults.

* Threats of physical violence, including the use of weapons. Staff have also seen weapons or drug-related items in the homes of some clients.

* Intimidating behaviour

* Staff being shut in a room and not allowed to leave.

To address these risks the Trust is working to ensure that their people are in constant communication throughout their working day. Across the board, all community staff are issued with mobile phones. Moreover, along with other trusts, they are also evaluating the use of mobile phones with GPS satellite positioning capability. Satellite positioning locates staff at the exact address after they trigger an emergency alarm. The first response if provided by the ambulance service. The alarm opens a communication channel which is also recorded. Workers can decide what they want their emergency response to be. Based on experience to date, the Trust feels that this is an important safety mechanism for certain staff groups.

For staff whose role is likely to have less risk to their safety, then an alternative mobile phone system has also been considered. This makes it necessary for staff to text their location to a centre before making a visit. Although this appraoch is slightly less expensive than using the GPS positioning system on a mobile phone, the Trust recognises that this approach does not enable them to initiate an immediate response at the time of an incident as they do not have a precise location to attend, so is only favoured for staff who are likely to be exposed to the least risk.

by: Iain Jones

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