Page 6 - Work Force May 2019

‘If someone slams a door behind me, I want to run’
Union addressing workplace violence through action
STONY BROOK — Kristin Lehnert is only 29 years old, but she has difficulty standing for long periods of time due to a bulging disk in her lower back.
Lehnert, a certified nursing assistant at Stony Brook University Hospital, was injured after being attacked by a patient who was “med seeking.”
She is just one of dozens of CSEA members working at Stony Brook University Hospital’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) and longer-term mental health units who
have had to endure ongoing workplace violence that they say has been increasing in frequency — and intensity.
Our union is fighting to keep Lehnert and her co-workers as
safe as possible on
the job. SUNY Stony
Brook Local officers
and members have been standing together to ensure that hospital management minimize potential violence risks.
“CSEA members at Stony Brook University Hospital who work on the psychiatric units are working under extreme conditions,” said SUNY Stony Brook Local President Carlos Speight. “However, they are definitely sticking with our union. As a strong union, we are doing everything we can to make our members’ work environment safe.”
Facing violence
Many workers have harrowing stories. Teresa Morahan, a mental
health therapy aide, suffered a concussion and received stitches after a patient burst through a door and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her into a wall.
Before attacking Morahan, the patient had lunged at a doctor after he told the patient he would be admitted to the hospital, resulting in hospital staff contacting health and security staff to calm the man.
After an hour of counseling, the patient agreed to be sedated and the additional staff left the unit, leaving unit direct care staff to tend to the
man and other patients. “At that point, the
patient was walking
up and down the hallways, stating that he wasn’t going to go to the hospital and that he was going to hurt somebody instead,” said Morahan.
“What’s really pertinent about this situation is that
hospital staff knew this was a hot situation,” said Dorothy Neilsen, a mental health therapy aide. “Twenty people came to talk to the patient and then they all left, and we [the aides] were left with him.”
Eunice Brown, a nursing assistant 2, was forced out of work for eight months after being put in a choke hold by a patient. During the attack, he lost consciousness. Brown was only saved when another patient pulled the assailant away from him.
These ongoing attacks have affected many of our members who work on these units.
“I have developed PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] due
Eunice Brown, a nursing assistant 2, and Teresa Morahan, a mental health therapy aide, shown here outside Stony Brook University Hospital, are among the hospital staff who are facing violence on the job.
6 The Work Force
May 2019
“As a strong union, we
are doing everything we can to make our members’ work environment safe..”
to my incident,” said Morahan. “If someone slams a door behind me, I want to run. It’s very scary.”
While our members are committed to providing quality care to the patients, the incidents have also affected our members’ ability to give this care.
“I was walking with a patient when I was told by a nurse that I was going into an area with no cameras,” said Lehnert. “She told me not to go back there because if I scream, nobody will be able to get to me. I was in a situation where my patient wants to watch TV and I can’t take him there because it’s not safe for me. That
kind of thing can agitate the patients and make them violent.”
Understaffing increases risks
Our members also note that hospital management has also occasionally moved CPEP unit workers to staff other hospital units, often leaving the psychiatric emergency unit understaffed, which is a potential safety risk.
“We can’t control whether new patients come into the unit because there is no stop gap,” said Morahan. “We might have the police pull up with new patients, have several
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