Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: OTHER

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The %% employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to: (a) Staff workers who were working alone during the night shift in the group home at 412 East 10th Street, Grafton, were exposed to the hazard of being physically assaulted by the resident(s). Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct this hazard is: 1) The Interdisciplinary Team should look at the records of each individual (resident) to determine what their needs are and what behavior patterns may be manifested. That evaluation should also focus on the individual's past tendencies to react in a violent or aggressive manner under certain conditions. The evaluating Team should consider the risk factors (assaultive behavior) to staff workers and develop an intervention program appropriate to the individual's behavior profile to minimize the staff's exposure to violent behavior. 2) Conduct a worksite analysis using a systematic method to identify those areas needing indepth scrutiny of security hazards and identification of high-risk factors such as, but not limited to, resident behavior patterns, physical layout of the building, isolated locations/job activities, lighting problems, uncontrolled access and areas of previous security problems. 3) Provide additional training (including practice) for employees to physically protect themselves in a defensive manner. 4) Provide more information to the staff regarding the history of assaultive behavior of individuals so that the staff can recognize escalated behavior trends and mitigate the problem through early therapeutic intervention techniques. 5) Ensure adequate staffing levels as backup support or provide a personal alarm system that can be used to summon immediate assistance during an assault event. 6) When a violent incident occurs in which a staff employee is injured, follow-up the incident report with a debriefing of the employee by a qualified trainer in non-violent crisis intervention to see if the incident could have been handled differently to avoid injury and provide post-incident counseling to the affected staff employee.