54% social, health care workers face violence at work

About 54 percent workers of social and health care services experienced violence or the threat of violence at work place, reported National broadcaster Yle quoting a survey conducted by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

The survey conducted interviews with 24,000 workers in northern and eastern Karelia, southern Savo, Päijät-Häme, northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu.

Meanwhile 80 percent of employees working with the elderly and 70 percent of the workers of emergency service had directly experienced violence or been threatened.

About 15 percent of the respondents experienced sexual harassment by their clients.

Narcotics are involved in a majority of violent encounters but sometimes patients become belligerent as a result of a somatic illness, said the Yle report, adding that in such cases a patient may be triggered by low blood sugar or the aftermath of an epileptic seizure. Even the shortage of oxygen supplied to the brain following a heart attack could explain violent behaviour.