Municipal personnel under growing threat of violence

Nearly eight per cent of firefighter- ambulance drivers threatened with gun

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Finns employed in the municipal sector end up being targets of mental and physical aggression at work more often than before.
      According to a recent survey entitled Kunta 10 ("Municipality 10"), the number of those working in the social welfare and health care sector and having experienced mental violence at work grew from 28 to 32 per cent over the two years since the previous study, while the number of those who had experienced actual physical violence rose from 15 to 19 per cent.
     
Last year one in a hundred municipal employees was threatened with a gun. Such incidents occurred mostly in the social welfare and health care sector, while the education and culture sector was also occasionally faced with similar aggression.
      The definition of physical violence covers, among others, kicking and hitting. The two studies reveal that in 2004 nine per cent of all employees in the municipal sector experienced physical violence, while in 2006 the figure was 11 per cent.
     
"The fiercest type of violence, albeit the rarest, involving threats with a gun, a knife, or some kind of offensive weapon, had been targeted only on one per cent of the respondents of the survey. However, this figure is not insignificant, as these situations are life-threatening", reports Research Professor Jussi Vahtera from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH).
      According to the study, being threatened with a gun was slightly more common in large cities, such as Espoo, Vantaa, Turku, Tampere, and Oulu. Helsinki was not involved in the study at all.
      The most dangerous occupation in the municipal sector appears to be the job of a firefighter-ambulance driver. Nearly eight per cent of them were threatened with a gun at some time last year.
     
While mental violence involving verbal abuse and threats was most commonly experienced by personnel employed in the social welfare services, practical nurses were the target for bodily abuse more frequently than other employees.
      The situation became worse at the turn of the decade 1980s to 1990s, when hard drugs became more common. Today, it can happen that clients threaten ambulance drivers with a knife or a gun.
      The survey was conducted in the course of September through October of last year. According to Vahtera, the figures for 12 months could be as much as 20 per cent higher.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Threats and intimidation commonplace at many Helsinki health clinics (9.11.2006)

Links:
  Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH)

Helsingin Sanomat