What could be a risk to your personal safety when visiting a client at home Name at least three things?

• lifting, supporting and moving patients
• moving and handling equipment such as beds, mattresses, trolleys and wheelchairs
• occupational violence
• work-related stress
• bullying and harassment

In aged care work, injuries can often come from tasks like manually lifting patients from bed to chair, handling heavy objects or moving furniture. These may involve hazardous manual handling, which can lead to musculoskeletal disorders like sprains and strains to the back and shoulders. See 'hazardous manual handling' for detailed information.

Health and safety in aged care

Our tools and guides can be used to assess and control the specific risks in your workplace.

Consult

Involving your employees in health and safety issues can result in a safer workplace. That's why consultation is an important part of risk management. In certain situations employers must consult about health and safety issues with employees and health and safety representatives (HSRs) if they have them.

Risk management process

1. Find the hazards in your workplace.
2. Assess the risks associated with those hazards. You don't have to do a formal risk assessment if there is already information about the risk and how to control it.
3. Control the risks.
4. Monitor and review your risk controls. Revise the controls if they are not working.

Think about all workplaces

Managing risk applies to anywhere employees are working. It may be in an aged care residential facility, a client's home, or in vehicles or public places for support activities.

Health and safety legal duties

Under Victorian occupational health and safety law, there are specific duties to ensure health and safety in workplaces. For more information about your duties, see occupational health and safety – your legal duties.

Employers

Examples of employer duties are:

• For your employees, you must provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and free of risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable. Employees may include contractors and agency staff.
• Give your employees the necessary information, instruction, training or supervision to enable them to do their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health.
• Ensure that the conduct of your business does not endanger other people (including visitors and volunteers).
• Report notifiable incidents to WorkSafe.

Who's an employer?

If you have one or more employees, you are an employer. An employer can be a:

• person
• company
• partnership, unincorporated association, franchising operation, or not-for-profit organisation

Employees

Examples of employee duties are:

• Take reasonable care for your health and safety in the workplace. You must also take reasonable care for the health and safety of others who may be affected by what you do or don’t do.
• Cooperate with your employer about any action they take to comply with the OHS Act or Regulations. For example, use equipment properly, follow safe work policies and procedures and attend training.
• Don't intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything at the workplace to support health, safety and welfare.

Home care support workers are faced with many health and safety risks every day. Their duty to provide care and assistance means dealing with risks like general hazards (falls and slips), infections, and stress. It is up to employers to provide safety support systems for their home carer employees.

Taking active steps that address these problems enables you to make it safer for your home carers to provide care. This, in turn, improves the quality of care your clients receive.

This article will help you identify the risks your home carers face each day and how you can best secure their safety through workable considerations and lone worker care solutions.

In this article:

●     Duties of Home Care Support Workers

●     Understanding the Safety Risks Home Carers Face

●     Employers' Legal Obligations on Home Carer Safety

●     5 Considerations for Home Carer Safety

Duties of Home Care Support Workers

Home care support workers provide care, assistance, and companionship to seniors and people living with disabilities. Aged care agencies and private households often employ them. Some are self-employed or volunteers for charitable organisations.

As the job title implies, home carers provide care while in their client's home or private residence. Examples of the kind of care and assistance home care support workers include:

●     Providing bedside care like bathing, personal hygiene, and dressing

●     Planning and preparing meals and assisting with feeding

●     Helping with taking medication and changing medical dressings

●     Companionship or someone to talk to while at home

Understanding the Safety Risks Home Carers Face

Despite the positive impact many home care support workers provide their clients, they are not exempt from facing health and safety hazards while at work. As they fulfil their duties, many of them can face these risks:

●     Hazards such as slips and falls when providing general care

●     Burns and cuts from preparing meals

●     Physical stress from lifting and carrying heavy loads

●     Illness or infection from assisting medical care

●     Fatigue and mental stress from working long hours or in emotional/challenging circumstances

●     Workplace violence and abuse (in extreme instances)

Employer's Legal Obligations on Home Carer Safety

As the employer, you are obligated to provide a safe work environment for the home carers on your payroll. The Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2004 (OHS) (and Health and Safety at Work Act, for those of you in New Zealand) is clear on the things you must do to ensure a safe and risk-free workplace for your home care support workers. This is particularly important since many carers are in their clients' homes most of the time. As such, they can be classified as lone workers too.

RELATED: How Assistive Technology and Connected Care Can Improve Lone Worker Safety

Make it a point to remind your employees to comply with company-mandated safety rules and regulations. The best way to do so is to hold regular training that imbues a culture of health and safety among your employees. Just as you're required to ensure a safe work environment for your home carers, they are also responsible for their health and safety while in the client's home.

5 Considerations for Home Carer Safety

Here are some safety considerations to note so that you can ensure an injury-free workday for home care support workers:

1. Assess the Community Beforehand

The community your client lives in influences a home care support worker's safety. Getting to the client's home is every home carer's first task of the day. If there are no commute routes that make the house accessible, you should help your employee find a means of transportation.

Make sure you scout the area first if you're assigning a home carer to a new community for the first time. Learn the community's ins and outs and tell your employee where the essential places are, such as the grocery, hospital, or senior centre.

2. Check for Household Hazards

It's time to check up on your client's household after scouting your client's community. No matter how well kept, a client's home can still hide a few hazards. Loose carpets and exposed wires pose hazards both to your employees and clients.

It's important to raise these risks to your client right away. Doing this ensures that your employee focuses on what's important—caring for the client.

3. Get Plenty of Rest

Going to work after having a good night's sleep ensures that employees are physically and mentally prepared to provide care and assistance to clients. Encourage your home carers to get plenty of rest before showing up for work.

4. Stay Protected

Personal safety, even while in the client's home, is of utmost importance. Remind your home carers of these basic safety protocols:

●     Confirm the visit with the client before sending a home carer over

●     Wear a face mask and gloves, especially if the client has a contagious condition

●     Set regular check-ins (SMS or quick phone call) with you through the day

●     Bring a personal safety kit during every client visit

●     Have emergency numbers on speed dial

●     Wear a personal alarm

Everyone deserves to feel safe and supported at work. Check out our full guide to duress alarms for lone healthcare workers here.

5. Know Basic Emergency First Aid

First aid refers to helping someone immediately after they've experienced an accident or injury. Accidents can happen at any time. Educating your home carers on the basics of first aid enables them to help clients recover during accidents.

Learn more about basic first aid and the recommended DRSABCD Action Plan by HealthDirect.

Securing Home Carer Safety With Tunstall Healthcare

At Tunstall Healthcare, we've dedicated ourselves to helping employers like you to protect your people. Our remote solutions like the Lifestream by Guardian and personal alarms like the Tunstall GO are designed to secure lone workers' safety as they fulfil their day-to-day duties. Let us help you ensure your employees' safety today so you can focus on delivering positive health outcomes for your clients.

Need help understanding what lone worker safety solutions best suit your home carers? Contact us at Tunstall Healthcare today. We're ready to support your lone worker's safety with you.