‘Violence in the workplace’ is defined as any incident where an employer, employee or volunteer is abused, threatened or assaulted in situations relating to their work.

Within this definition:

• abuse is any unreasonable behaviour that involves the misuse of physical or psychological strength or power;
• threat is a statement of the intent to harm a person or damage their property; and
• assault is any attempt to cause injury to a person and includes actual physical harm.

The best way to reduce the likelihood of workplace violence is to eliminate the risk of exposure to it. If that’s not possible, we need to minimise the risk as far as is reasonably practicable.

Prevention and management of workplace violence requires an integrated organisational approach. The nature and location of work, the types of clients, staffing levels and skill mix can all affect the risk of exposure to workplace violence.

In addition to the identified strategies for particular services/clients within Baptist Care SA, our ‘Occupational violence work directive’ mentions that violence creates a significant risk of injury in industries where there are elements of personal care and the clients are under distress. This aids in utilising the hazard identification, risk assessment and control approach as set-out in the ‘Hazard Management Reporting work directive’.