After Workplace Violence Incident, Mental Health Resources a Must


Physical attacks on employees are rare, but when they happen, employers should be ready to provide psychiatric resources for victims as they work to cope with trauma. Violent incidents can leave workers who have experienced or witnessed attacks with depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. As they seek to help traumatized employees, companies can turn to specialty insurance coverages to pay for counseling. Whether they have coverage or not, experts advise employers to be ready to provide the resources employees need.


"If it does happen, it is so emotionally, financially and psychologically devastating to the employees and the organization that we do strongly counsel people to make sure that you're prepared," said Gregory Bangs, vice president and product manager for crime and kidnap and ransom insurance at Chubb Corp.Insurance coverage can help pay for the cost of such assistance. For instance, Chubb offers workplace violence insurance that will pay for such benefits as crisis mental health counseling and a consultant to help ensure that a facility is "hardened" to prevent future attacks, Bangs said.


Employers also should work to make sure employees are trained in techniques that can help them prevent or escape violent scenarios, Chubb's Bangs said. That information can help employees feel empowered if they face an unlikely event of workplace violence, he said. "If you do that up front, you're going to help things down the road," Bangs said.


To read more, click here (complimentary registration required) One Hospital’s Incredible Response to the Aurora, Colo., Shooting


The emergency response to the mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Co., on July 20 followed a quick timeline. Police officers and firefighters arrived on the scene within about 90 seconds of the first dispatch, and about 15 minutes into the response, the Aurora Police Department requested that people begin to be moved from the scene to health-care facilities.


According to police, James Holmes — who was charged with the attack was apprehended by officers at about 12:45. Shortly after 1 a.m., a request for bed counts went out over the EMSystem, which automatically paged several members of the UCH staff. And at 1:01 a.m., the first patients from the shooting, a mother and her four-month-old child, arrived at the University of Colorado Hospital by private vehicle. That was just the beginning. In total, UCH received 23 patients from the Aurora massacre. UCH then began focusing on its initial priorities, including: ensuring there was adequate staff in the ER; offloading patients who were in the emergency department to the post-anesthesia care unit; securing the area; and working with people in the lobby who were inquiring about loved ones. To help the public, UCH set up a hotline within the first 12 hours of the emergency.


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