Home care providers need to step up worker safety initiatives, experts say

Home care providers need to step up worker safety initiatives, experts say
McKnight's Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/14/24
In the aftermath of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s citing of Elara Caring for failing to protect a worker killed on the job, safety and legal experts are urging providers to be proactive about implementing worker safety practices. “We have been seeing a rather significant uptick in workplace violence issues in the home-based care industry,” Angelo Spinola, an attorney at Polsinelli, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse, in a statement. “We highly recommend that providers take proactive steps to implement home-based care specific policies and procedures and conduct workplace trainings that address common issues such as what to do if a client is acting erratically, how to report unsafe conditions in the home [such as an unsecured firearm], de-escalation techniques, etc.”