Posted By Eddie Newall
Has anyone developed a risk management protocol which includes verbal abuse? This is in the context of a general hospital ward where verbal abuse is common and physical abuse is rare.

Posted By Annetta Maslen
I work for a Registered Social Landlord - unfortunately verbal abuse is a much too common occurrence when tenants are abusive towards staff.

We manage this by:
- encouraging staff to report ALL significant incidents
- giving training to staff to enable them to spot the signs of aggression developing and to give techniques to defuse a situation
(prevention being the main aim)
- making it very clear to tenants that abusive and/or aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated and is a breach of their tenancy agreement
- local risk assessments are discussed amongst staff and revised as and when circumstances change - and an action plan drawn up making it clear to staff how to respond in different circumstances.
I hope this is helpful.
Annetta

Posted By Tim Davies
Speaking as a trainer regarding personal safety at work I must agree with the last response. Too often verbal abuse isn't assessed or reported which for some employees can be as traumatic as physical abuse. Lets face it, physical abuse in one respect is much easier to 'assess' and deal with as there are very few realistic preventative or protective measures. Verbal abuse, granted serious verbal abuse is much more difficult to deal with as there is no physical response, hence no real measures to put in place which means it generally gets ignored and becomes acceptable. In turn this just reinforces the under reporting problem and undermines the overall safety culture. My current employee has a similar problem as the original query. We are still working on it, suffice to say any abuse that is deemed to be serious by the employee on behalf of themselves or indeed on behalf of others, such as customers/other employees etc, should be reported. Ask any employee who has been subject to serious verbal abuse about how they felt sometime later and how it affects there dealing with people. It is a considerable problem that must be taken in the context it is given or received. If in doubt get them to report it.
Get into the habit of 'exit interviews', not just leaving the employment but also leaving the department and you might find it isn't just a case of 'sticks and stones'.
Tim

Posted By Eddie Newall
Thanks to everyone who has responded and taken the time to express their views. I posted this query on behalf of a ward manager who wants to produce a protocol for managing verbal abuse. Physical violence is rare on her ward whereas verbal abuse is common. She would find it very helpful to look at an example of an existing protocol for managing aggression, verbal and/or physical.

If anyone has devised such a document and is willing to email it to me at ewn1@cant.ac.uk I will pass it on to her.