East Lancashire NHS staff will learn to ward off attacks

EXTRA training is being given to NHS staff after the number of assaults and threats against mental health workers in Lancashire reached a two-year high.

While in 2010-11 there were 744 incidents, per 1,000 staff, this has risen to 828 for the last year.

And the rate of physical and verbal attacks has peaked at 82 and 91 each month, higher than previous high watermarks of 70 to 79, recorded in summer and autumn 2010.

Much of the problem has centred on adult mental health wards and specialists services, according to a report presented to Lancashire Care Foun-dation NHS Trust directors.

And health bosses are working closely with police and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers to see whether the use of illicit drugs is a factor behind the rise.

Susan Rigg, the trust’s peformance management director, said: “We are taking this matter seriously with discussions within each network being used to investigate reported incidents.

“There is currently an analysis of the trend of violent and aggressive incidents across the trust.

“Certain key areas have already been identified which should be undertaken to improve staff and patient safety.

“Staff training is to be reviewed to ensure that staff fully understand recognising aggression triggers, appropriate eng-agement and a physical skill that is used as a last option.”

The number of violent incidents by patients on non-staff members, which could include other service users or visitors, has also been steadily increasing since last September.

Comments(5)

Am i in yet..? says...
5:20pm Mon 18 Jun 12

REHYPOTHICATION

Maybe the rise is due to benefit cuts and the inadequacy of the company left to assess claimants.. If they decide that a person is fit for work and the person is not fit then that said person is left with no help or means to gain a living. That person out of desperation might go to the extreme of either attempting to commit suicide and run the risk of nobody turning up to save them from themselves or assaulting an NHS worker rather than risk being arrested for assaulting a member of the public and going to prison simply to make themselves unemployable. If that is the case then the whole system of the assessments is questionable and its most likely the cause of rising assaults on members of the mental health teams. Or it could be that they are not well enough to have their benefits cut and they shouldn't have been in the community to begin with however there is nowhere else to put them. It was Thatchers government that closed all the mental health units releasing thousands of unstable patients into the community during the eighties and nineties. You can't just shut places like Brockhall and Calderstones without having repercussions a decade or two later in life. If places like Calderstones and Brockhall were running at full capacity as they once did and it was a simple process to send people there who claim to have mental health problems as they once did am 100% sure that we wouldn't have as many people on the sick claiming to suffer with mental health problems as we do. And there would be adequate safe accommodation with the correct care that these patients desperately need instead of treating mental health patients within the community as we have become accustomed to over the past fifteen years or so.

I then find this on the net explaining that its the NHS managers that are putting their staff at risk by not using the funds given to them by the government in the correct manner.

NHS managers in England have been accused of "shocking discrimination" in commissioning mental health services.

The Mental Health Policy Group from the London School of Economics said three-quarters of people with depression or anxiety got no treatment.

The committee of senior academics and medical professionals described this as a "real scandal".

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said mental health should be treated as seriously as physical health issues.

The committee is headed by economist Professor Lord Richard Layard and includes some of the country's most eminent mental health experts.

Official guidance

It said the NHS in England was guilty of injustice in its treatment of people with mental illness.

The group's report found that among those aged under 65, nearly half of all ill-health was mental illness.

It said six million people had depression or anxiety conditions and yet three-quarters got no treatment.

This was often because NHS managers failed to commission properly the mental health services recommended in official guidance, the experts added.

They said £400m earmarked by the government for psychological therapy was not always used for its intended purpose because there was no obligation on managers to do so.

The committee concluded that mental health services should be expanded, but if anything it was being cut.

'Little cost'

Lord Layard said: "If local NHS commissioners want to improve their budgets, they should all be expanding their provision of psychological therapy.

"It will save them so much on their physical healthcare budgets that the net cost will be little or nothing.

"Mental health is so central to the health of individuals and of society that it needs its own cabinet minister."

Mr Burstow said investment in mental health services was "already delivering remarkable results".

"Mental ill-health costs £105bn per year and I have always been clear that it should be treated as seriously as physical health problems," he said.

"We will shortly publish our plans to make sure the NHS, councils, voluntary organisations and others can play their part in improving the nation's mental health.

"The coalition government is investing £400m to make sure talking therapies are available to people of all ages who need them."

mavrick says...
6:34pm Mon 18 Jun 12

I posted a very similar response. so why has it been deleted LET?? I am beginning to wonder is there some political coercion going on behind the scenes, I have noticed other anti coalition posts have been deleted. particularly on the NHS. If you don't want a response then don't allow any from anybody. I will continue for now.

Whilst I agree with a lot of the above post which I posted, I would sound a serious warning about the sleight of hand and weasel words from the coalition. A classic example is they have said approximately 13% of the NHS budget for mental health is being increased, bear in mind they are cutting £20 billion from the NHS budget, so if they do nothing the figures will automatically go up from 13% to about 20% as the budget decreases. A typical Tory manipulation of figures. This coalition is worse than the Blair misinformation strategy.

Am i in yet..? says...
7:18pm Mon 18 Jun 12

mavrick wrote:
I posted a very similar response. so why has it been deleted LET?? I am beginning to wonder is there some political coercion going on behind the scenes, I have noticed other anti coalition posts have been deleted. particularly on the NHS. If you don't want a response then don't allow any from anybody. I will continue for now.

Whilst I agree with a lot of the above post which I posted, I would sound a serious warning about the sleight of hand and weasel words from the coalition. A classic example is they have said approximately 13% of the NHS budget for mental health is being increased, bear in mind they are cutting £20 billion from the NHS budget, so if they do nothing the figures will automatically go up from 13% to about 20% as the budget decreases. A typical Tory manipulation of figures. This coalition is worse than the Blair misinformation strategy.
This lot are worse than Blairs and Thatchers lot put together.

Paul The Octopus Lives! says...
8:50pm Mon 18 Jun 12

Why not stop making people wait four hours while you ignore them and eat cakes? This would reduce the number of assaults.
For balance those who assault NHS staff should be refused treatment forever. Those who turn up at A&E and are drunk and abusive should be shot.

Problem solved.

Am I in yet also clearly needs immediate section under the Mental Health Act or Boring Loser Act.

woolywords says...
8:18am Tue 19 Jun 12

I fail to see why we cannot have at least two Police Officers on duty, at peak times, in our hospitals.
Any problems with behaviour could be observed in the waiting area, before it gets to the staff being involved.
Before anyone mentions costs involved, these can easily be recouped by savings in the lost working time through injury, compensation claims and any damage done to equipment.
Any person convicted of an offense on hospital property is fined, along with a compensation order, going to the hospital fund.
I know that this system is already in place at an hospital where my daughter works, where because of the proximity of a local Army base, they have Military Police as well.

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