Violence, Aggression and Unacceptable Behaviour at the Trust
The Trust is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for staff and taking all reasonable steps to protect and support staff. Violent or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated and the Trust will take decisive action to press for the maximum possible penalty for anyone who behaves in a violent, aggressive or abusive way to Trust staff.
The Trust aims to reduce the occurrence of violence and aggression using the following methods:
- Primary prevention aims to reduce the risk of challenging behaviour occurring in the first instance by using preventative strategies to reduce the risk of possible unacceptable behaviour.
- Secondary prevention involves reducing the risk associated with imminent challenging behaviour and its potential escalation, by using interpersonal skills to influence positive outcomes, issuing verbal warnings and entering behavioural contracts.
- Tertiary prevention focuses on minimising the physical and emotional harm caused by challenging behaviours, during and after an incident.
The Trust also operates a policy giving the option of withholding treatment from violent and abusive patients if they continue to act in an inappropriate manner.
The Trust will consider each situation on its individual merits to ensure that the need to protect staff is balanced against the need to provide healthcare to individuals.
Violence and some challenging behaviours may occasionally be used as a form of complaint. The Trust complaints procedure should be implemented at such times.