Would you know how to respond to a
threat of violence
in a stranger’s home?

I recently had the pleasure of working with the Chair and Members from the Homecare & Hospice Committee from the Healthcare Coalition of Southwestern Pennsylvania to develop a customized one-hour training on Workplace Violence for In-Home Healthcare Workers.  The Coalition is comprised of a variety of medical professionals within several counties located in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  At a meeting earlier this year, the Homecare & Hospice Committee identified the need for training specific to in-home workers since the majority of workplace violence training is geared towards school, office, and hospital facilities and typically do not apply to these medical professionals.  Whenever one of these individuals is tasked with caring for a new patient, he or she is faced with the uncertainty of who is waiting for them upon entering that patient’s home.

How a healthcare provider responds to a threat of violence within a patient’s home is vastly different than in a hospital setting with numerous exits and hospital police located in the facility with the ability to immediately respond to a threat.  Using the information in the poster below as a guide, I met regularly with a workgroup from the Committee to develop a one-hour on-demand training tailored to the needs of in-home workers and the specific actions and responses they must take when a threat is imminent. 

This on-demand video training is now available to the entire Homecare & Hospice Committee as well as their coworkers and employees, providing a custom-designed certificate of completion for each participant, for an entire year.  Committee Members are also able to use this one-hour training as part of employee onboarding processes within their own agencies at no additional cost to them or the Coalition.

While finishing the development of this training, I thought of the professionals who may be put into threatening situations while working in a home that is not their own.  I developed this specific training for home health and hospice workers but is now a platform for virtual on-demand Workplace Violence for In-Home Workers trainings geared towards other professions.  This training would be ideal and easily customized for those whose jobs are located within someone’s home – from real estate agents to in-home veterinarians to teachers who tutor or provide services to students with special needs.

Being prepared for and responding to a threat of violence is not ‘one size fits all’ but being aware of one’s surroundings is always the first step in staying safe in any situation.  Safeguard Risk Solutions is able to develop and update workplace violence prevention programs and conduct active shooter and violence prevention drills in any workplace setting.  With COVID-19 restrictions being lifted, I am happy to accommodate both virtual and in-person person workplace violence and active shooter training.