Assaults continue at Washington psychiatric hospital
SEATTLE -- As coronavirus cases spike at Washington state's largest psychiatric hospital, workers are pleading with officials to save them not just from the disease, but also from the violence that continues to plague the facility.
“It's disheartening. You see an ambulance come not to bring a patient but to take one of your peers out of here because our management fails to staff this facility,” John Henson, a mental health technician at Western State Hospital, told The Associated Press. “Our members are getting hurt, getting beat up.”
Last week, a social worker suffered a head injury when she was assaulted “and will never be the same," Mike Yestramski, a psychiatric social worker told the hospital's CEO in a recent email. They had six patient-on-patient assaults on one ward during a recent shift and a discharge team driver was assaulted a few weeks back, he said.
“We’ve lost more staff than I can count because of this, either they’re too injured to return to work or they’re afraid to return,” Yestramski said. “I’m sick and tired of seeing my friends/coworkers get injured (sometimes permanently) and I’m sick and tired of explaining to their loved ones why their employer allowed this to happen."
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(Tacoma News Tribune)
