EVERYDAY VIOLENCE

Under what circumstances are work place violence detrimental to the mental health?

Background
In human service work violence is a growing problem, which has been shown to have negative consequenses for the mental health of the employees. Workplace violence can be very different in regards to frequency and severity. The negative consequenses of workplace violence is not only depending on the violence itself, but is also related to other conditions in the work environment, as well as the subjective understanding and evaluation of violence in the person experiencing it.

Purpose
The purpose of the study is:
- To investigate what type and frequency of physical violence are damaging to mental health.
- To investigate how the context of the work environment and the employees experience of the violence can either exacerbate or reduce the effect on the mental health.

Design
The project is completed as a three-year prospective study on 2500 social educators working with adults with disabilities. During 12 month data will be collected at baseline- and follow-up , in regards to symptoms of psychological stress, PTSD and burnout, factors of the psychosocial work environment the subjective experience of the violence as well as sociodemographic factors. Between baseline and follow-up data on exposure to violence will also be collected, using text messaging surveys.

Institution of primary responsibility
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, OUH

Contactperson from the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Jesper Pihl-Thingvad.

Collaborations
The National Center of Psychotraumatology, dep.of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark; The National Research Center for Work Environment; National Federation of Social Educators..
Funded by The Working Environment Research Fund.