Preventing violence in care for the elderly and in social inclusion services

In a paper entitled ‘Violence as a work-related stressor: Findings from elderly and special needs care in Southern Germany’, Kappe examined the extent to which violence in elderly care and support services for people with special needs represents not only a challenge for individual staff members, but also a significant workload with both individual and structural causes. The study shows that, in addition to self-reflection and de-escalation skills, effective prevention requires reliable organisational structures, training programmes and the systematic recording and review of incidents of violence.

Consequently, the conclusion of the presentation was that violence is not an individual problem, but must be considered at the individual, organisational and societal levels. Particularly against the backdrop of the conference theme – ‘Mental Health in Times of Uncertainty’ – it became clear why dealing with violence and the resulting uncertainties is also a matter of health-promoting working conditions and sustainable prevention structures. 

The study presented here was carried out within the Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Healthy Work in the Social and Healthcare Sectors (KompIGA). KompIGA is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the programme ‘The Future of Value Creation – Research into Production, Services and Work’ and is managed by the Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA).