A Robust Solution for Community Workers Facing Aggressive Behaviours

Workplace violence collectively represents incidents where employers or workers are threatened, sexually and physically abused, and assaulted. This format of violence may also include workers facing challenging behaviours and bullying, The security of a community worker may be jeopardised while interacting with clients, their family members and friends, or the members of the public.

The safety standards of community workers, such as personal support workers, are further deteriorated as they have to work after dark and in isolation. Most people are unaware of the behavioural challenges and aggressiveness that community workers face daily. Afterwards, we will also give one robust safety solution that will increase the safety of community workers and other high-risk personnel despite the challenges.

The challenges of community workers

Community workers operate in diverse environments where they may be confronted with an array of values and attitudes. Some of these belief systems are at odds with the experience and training received by community workers. This difference of opinions may at times cause frictions in the form of altercations as well.

The clients generally display challenging behaviours include because of multiple factors such as:

·         Physical or psychological pain

·         Grief, loss, anxiety or depression

·         Incontrollable impulse to hurt

·         Frustration from being misunderstood

·         Lack of self-worth

·         Loneliness

·         Unmet needs

·         Rejection

·         Mental illnesses such as dementia, epilepsy, etc.

·         Neurological disability

Besides these factors, community workers may also have a hard time analysing a situation which may lead to uncontrolled behaviours of their clients. Resultantly, a worker may be at risk of experiencing challenges in the form of violent behaviours from the clients or their visitors. Some common forms of challenging behaviours that community workers face every day are as follows.

·         Facing sexual assaults

·         Being subject to verbal abuses

·         Dealing with difficult personalities

·         Correcting unrealistic expectations

·         Handling threatening or aggressive behaviours

Experienced workers, however, use their interpersonal skills to de-escalate such situations while minimising the probability of them getting deteriorated. The fact is, not community every worker is experienced enough to handle these situations effectively. Some of these workers are still learning the ropes, so they do not know how to respond to such situations.

Even worse, community workers who get exposed to these behavioural challenges continually may suffer from different psychological and physical risks as well. Worst of all, these challenges may have an accumulative effect because it rarely happens that a single incident can cause a psychological dent. In contrast, repeated incidents involving a mix of these challenges may lead to irreparable harm. The effects of that harm can be sharper, depending on the worker’s values, beliefs and previous experiences.

The previous caregivers, family or friends of the client with a history of aggressive behaviour must tell community workers about the challenges of working with the individual. It is important to prevent these challenges and aggressiveness from seeping into the everyday behaviour of the client. Sharing such key pieces of information will help community workers in working towards reducing hazardous outcomes. The details, patterns and triggers of such aggressive and challenging behaviours must be communicated to relevant community workers or caregivers.

Besides having the right set of information, community workers need to be armed with a robust solution. This solution must be designed to help community workers face challenging and aggressive behaviours from clients or the public with a degree of confidence. This solution should empower community workers and other high-risk staff members to raise the alarm whenever they find themselves stuck amidst an unfavourable situation.

This robust solution comes in the form of alarm systems that are specially designed for high-risk personnel, including community workers and caregivers. And your search for fool-proof alarm systems will end with GPS Geo Guard.

How will GPS Geo Guard help?

GPS Geo Guard works with hundreds of thousands of enterprise clients across Australia. Being a trusted security partner for many companies, GPS Geo Guard enables lone workers and high-risk personnel to strengthen their safety standards and work health.

Whether you are looking for GPS tracking solutions or man-down alarm systems, GPS Geo Guard has the right suite of safety solutions for employees. These solutions make sure your high-risk workers enjoy high protection while they are on duty. Check out the complete range of safety solutions today for lone workers and high-risk personnel today.