The largest number of injuries among front-line health care workers happen in residential care.
Stephen Symon with WorkSafeBC says acts of violence, or reactive behaviour by a senior suffering from dementia is a growing problem.
“For the most part, somebody knows of the types of activities that will be a trigger; somebody knows of the type of approach which will be more calming and it’s more of a question of how do we share that information [and] how do we ensure the staff have the proper knowledge and training on how to best manage what can be some very challenging behaviours.”
Over-exertion, acts of violence and falls are the top 3 injuries.
Symon says there’s been an 11% increase in time-loss injury claims over the last 5 years.
