By Leon Harris
Published in INsite, June/July 2002

Aged Care Providers have a duty of care under both common law and occupational health and safety legislation to provide for the safety of residents, staff and visitors.  There is a strong relationship between safety and security.  In conjunction with the OH&S legislation, operators should refer to Australian Standard AS 4485.1 & 2 “Security for health care facilities”(which includes aged care). 

In accordance with AS 4485.1 every organisation shall:

• Undertake an initial security risk assessment to establish what measures it needs to implement to protect the people and property for which it has a duty of care;
• Produce evidence of the research undertaken in the security risk assessment process and evidence that the recommendations of the security risk assessment have been implemented; and
• Regularly review and revise the policies and procedures developed as part of the initial process, as required by Section 3 (Assessment of Security Risks).

Experience has shown criminals can be attracted to an aged care facility, as they know they are a ‘soft target’by comparison to other types of locations.  Criminals are aware that security patrols, police response and security hardware by themselves, are not a substantial threat.

Too often security is reactive, ill-conceived and ad-hoc.  It is well proven that an unprofessional approach to security is usually not a deterrent to criminals, and often manifests itself as counterproductive, as it often raises fear of crime levels and increases costs to the facility.  Fear of crime is strongly related to diminished quality of life for residents and staff.  Issues relating to quality of life impact on the decisions made by residents and their families with regard to residency options.  Fear of crime by staff can lead to low morale, absenteeism and staff turnover.

Security for residents, staff and assets should be ‘holistic’and sustainable; anything less may fail to deter criminals and likely send a negative message to staff.

Some of the areas that need to be examined when assessing security risks include: 

Unfortunately, there is too often a mindset that ‘security is nothing but a cost.’  This is far from the experience of operators that have positively embraced the need to ensure that their duty of care obligations are fulfilled.  For facility operators to gain business advantages from their investment in security, they must go beyond the notion of treating security as a pure obligation and realign it as part of the core business function.  Modern security risk management knowledge needs to underpin analysis and strategy.

By maintaining an emphasis on continuous improvement, other benefits will include a more positive environment and improve the organisation’s and directors legal defence should any litigation arise out of violence.

Greater understanding and usage of the terms continuous improvement in security management, security risk management and security best practice will eventually become second nature to the modern aged care facility operator.  The application of these terms will greatly assist in the processes towards meeting accreditation and certification requirements.

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