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Client history and violence on direct care workers in the home care setting
Author(s) -
Byon Ha Do,
Storr Carla,
Edwards Lori,
Lipscomb Jane
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.22652
Subject(s) - medicine , verbal abuse , workplace violence , occupational safety and health , suicide prevention , poison control , injury prevention , odds , psychiatry , domestic violence , substance abuse , mental illness , physical abuse , odds ratio , human factors and ergonomics , logistic regression , mental health , environmental health , pathology
Background Health care workers providing home care are frequently unaware of their client's history of violence or mental illness/substance abuse disorder, recognized risk factors for workplace violence. This study estimated the associations between these factors and experiencing client violence among direct care workers in the home settings (DCWHs). Methods Acts and threats of violence were estimated using data from an anonymous survey among DCWHs (n = 876) working at two large home care agencies. Logistic regressions were performed to produce odds ratios. Results Physical acts and physical or verbal threats of client violence were associated with providing homecare to clients with a violence history (adjusted ORs = 6.60 and 10.78, respectively), whereas threats of client violence (adjusted OR = 5.80) were associated with caring for clients with a mental illness/substance abuse disorder. Conclusions Policy and practices that support the communication of appropriate client risk information may reduce the likelihood of workplace violence among DCWHs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:1130–1135, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.