Patient Violence and Harassment Prevention Statement

Summerville Family Health Team is committed to building and preserving a safe, productive, and healthy working environment and is ultimately responsible for the health and safety of all staff, physicians, other health practitioners, students, and volunteers at all Summerville sites. All reasonable steps will be taken to protect team members from workplace violence and harassment from all sources. Violent behaviour and harassment at Summerville are unacceptable from anyone including patients, visitors, staff, physicians, other health practitioners, students, and volunteers. Everyone is expected to work together to prevent workplace violence and harassment.

Violent behaviour will not be tolerated. If someone becomes aggressive or violent, they may be asked to leave, and all team members must be advised when there is a risk of violence. By keeping all team members safe and informed, they are better able to meet the needs of patients and their families.

Examples of workplace violence include, but are not limited to:

• Verbally threatening to attack an individual
• Leaving threatening notes at, or sending threatening e-mails to, a workplace
• Making any kind of threatening gestures
• Hitting or trying to hit an individual
• Throwing an object at anyone
• Bringing a weapon onsite 
• Sexual violence against an individual

Workplace violence does not include a situation where an individual is accidentally hurt, i.e., an individual (e.g., patient) tripping over an object and then falling or pushing into an individual – that would be a health and safety issue, which should be reported to the Health and Safety Committee.

Examples of workplace harassment include, but are not limited to:

• Bullying or aggressive behaviour
• Comments or jokes that demean, ridicule, intimidate, or offend
• Unwelcome remarks, jokes, innuendos, propositions, or taunting about a person’s body, attire, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation
• Repeated offensive or intimidating phone calls or emails
• Physical contact with an underlying sexual connotation and/or any unwelcome sexual advance or request for sexual favours
• Displays or circulation of offensive pictures, pornographic or sexual materials in print or electronic form.

When the Alleged Offender is a Patient

If there has been an incident of violence or harassment by a patient, the following may be considered when determining corrective action (this is not an exhaustive list):

• The impact of the incident on the individual(s)
• Whether it was an isolated outburst or trend in behaviour
• Whether there was intent to inflict harm or to intimidate and inflict fear of harm 
• Whether or not there was a weapon involved
• The degree of aggressiveness and physical contact
• The context of the incident
• The future safety of the workplace.

Corrective Actions

Following workplace violence or harassment by a patient, all reasonable measures will be taken to ensure the safety of team members, including:

• Issuing verbal or written warnings
• Discontinuing the use of email for communication with the patient
• Imposing conditions which the patient must agree to abide by to continue receiving care
• Removing items which the patient can use as a weapon
• Requiring that the patient be accompanied by family member or police when visiting Summerville
• Terminating the provision of care by Summerville practitioners
• Issuing a trespass warning letter or seeking a trespass notice, a formal notice that the individual is not allowed to enter the premises
• If deemed necessary, contacting the police

The above actions may also be considered, as appropriate, in circumstances where the violence or harassment is being committed by an individual who is accompanying a patient to an appointment or communicating with Summerville on a patient’s behalf.

Violent behaviour and harassment at Summerville are unacceptable. All reasonable steps will be taken to protect team members from workplace violence and harassment.

Created December 2023