Home care aides often suffer verbal abuse at the hands of clients and their families, according to a study published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
 
The study involved people with a range of titles including home health aide, certified nursing assistant, hospice aide, personal care aide, personal care attendant and homemaker.
 
About 7% of aides reported experiencing physical violence on the job while about 20% experienced verbal violence. The results were slightly worse for agency-hired aides, with 23% reporting verbal violence compared to 14% of client-hired aides.
 
Dementia training can help aides develop work practices and communication strategies that can help, the study authors contend.
 
The study goes on to say that “initial and periodic client home assessments can include the determination of space requirements for care tasks and need for assistive devices to mobilize clients as well as development of care plans that consider the safety of both client and aide. While providing aides with predictable work hours can be challenging to the HC industry, it may benefit clients and aides, and potentially help address employee turnover, one of the industry’s biggest challenges.”