Long term care facilities: workers at risk of harassment, abuse.

This is from the Globe. There is nothing in this report about patient abuse by staff or patients. Is that 7 times what it is in Nordic countries too? Certainly understaffing could be a factor but surely with some elderly patients with diseases such as Alzheimer's violence will be normal and care-givers must learn to deal with it. There is no comparison in the study with the U.S.


LONG-TERM-CARE FACILITIES

Support workers at risk of harassment, abuse
BRODIE FENLON

March 11, 2008

Canadians working in long-term care facilities face an "extraordinary" amount of physical violence, unwanted sexual attention and racism - far more than colleagues in other countries with publicly funded health-care systems, a new study says.

"We knew that there was quite a bit of violence," said lead author Albert Banergee, a doctoral candidate at York University, citing a previous study.

"What really shocked us this time was the difference between Nordic countries and Canada."

The study found that 43 per cent of personal-support workers in Canada endured physical violence - including slaps, bites, punches, hair pulling, wrist twists and spitting - on a daily basis, nearly seven times the violence experienced by workers in Denmark, Finland, Norway or Sweden.


"Our international comparison shows that the level of violence in Canadian long-term care facilities is extraordinary," the study notes.

About one-third, or 30.1 per cent, of workers said they experienced unwanted sexual attention daily or weekly. The vast majority of these workers - 95.1 per cent - are women, and many are immigrants, the report adds.

The study reiterates previous research findings on the correlation between poor working conditions and levels of workplace violence. Nearly half the workers surveyed in the York University study reported that they work short-staffed daily. Another 34.4 per cent said they worked short-staffed on a weekly basis.

In contrast, only 15.4 per cent of workers in the Nordic countries reported daily staffing shortages.

"We definitely don't want people to think it's a problem with the residents," Mr. Banergee said. "There are some very significant differences in working environments and working conditions between Nordic Europe and Canada, and the principal difference is short-staffing. In Canada, they are doing too much, too fast, with too few resources," he said.

Compounding the problem is the prevalence of dementia, the study notes, as residents enter long-term care "older and sicker than they were in the past." Previous research suggests it is not unusual to find 60 to 70 per cent of residents with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.

The study data are based on surveys sent to 81 long-term care facilities in Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. The surveys were distributed by union representatives to staff at each facility between January and August, 2006. Workers from 71 institutions took part.