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

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 the hazard of physical assault such as being stabbed, punched, hit and/or bitten by mental health clients. a) Location - 110 Ocean Avenue, Revere, MA: On or about January 20, 2011, a senior counselor working at the group home was brutally attacked and fatally injured during performance of regularly assigned duties. Employees are exposed to the hazard of physical assault such as being stabbed, punched, hit or bitten while providing services to clients confronting emotional difficulties, mental illness, developmental disabilities and additions. The employer failed to develop and implement adequate measures to protect employees from physical assault in the workplace. Feasible means of abatement, among others include: 1.Provide employees with personal duress/panic buttons with no-response alarms connected to a continually monitored and automatic response system as described in Lone Worker Safety Systems. 2.Install panic buttons in employees' offices (which are located in all group homes). 3.Install recording security camera systems throughout facilities to monitor behavior. 4. Create a stand alone written Workplace Violence Prevention Program for all the service programs which include the following elements: * A Workplace Violence Policy Statement including responsibilities of all staff and a policy of zero tolerance for Workplace Violence; * Hazard/Threat/Security Assessment including records review, inspection of the worksite, and employee survey; * Implementation of Workplace Controls and Prevention Strategies; * Training and Education of all Staff with a focus on the specifics of the NSMH Association program; * Incident Reporting and Investigation; * Periodic review of the program. 5.Conduct more extensive training so that all employees are aware of what the company workplace violence policy is, and where that information can be found. In addition, train all employees to state clearly to clients and employees that violence is not permitted or tolerated. Train all employees how to respond during a workplace violence incident. Further train employees on: recognizing when a client or others are exhibiting aggressor behavior and techniques for timely de- escalating the behavior; risk factors that cause or contribute to assaults. 6.Determine the behavioral history of new/transferred clients. 7.Conduct Criminal Offense records checks (Massachusetts CORI) and Sexual Offender records checks (MA SORB). 8.Implement & maintain a buddy system for at least second and third shifts as appropriate based upon a complete hazard assessment. 9.Establish a system - such as chart tags, log books, or verbal census reports - to identify clients with assaultive behavior problems and train all staff to understand the flagging system. 10.Put procedures in place that would communicate any incident of workplace violence to staff that might have contact with that client so that employees who might not have access to client charts would be aware of previous acts of violence or aggression. 11.Provide employee's with smart-phone GPS location capability to monitor employee safety. 12.Obtain hand held scanners to scan all guests and their property. 13.Issue private channel radios (walkie talkies) for increased communication and support between staff.n