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While many people associate the whole concept of bully as something that only affects the younger generation, in all actuality this is far from the truth. Statistics demonstrate that 5-10% of all United Kingdom residents who live in care homes, experience bullying from their senior counterparts. What's also alarming about this fact is that experts estimate that in a wide majority of the care home related bullying and abuse cases, the caregivers themselves were themselves responsible. In this overview, we'll take a look at a few options that you have when it comes to learning how to avoid bullying in care homes. 1) Set Up a System That Defines The Expectations And Boundaries That The Community Has To Adhere To The staff members of care homes are not only responsible for maintaining the physical health of their residents, they are also responsible for their mental health as well. As such, when it comes to the question, how to avoid bullying in care homes ? the community's director needs to alert the staff and residents alike, that bullying in itself will not be tolerated and individuals who partake in incidents that could be categorised as abuse/bullying as well as their enablers, will face the consequences that are associated with breaking the boundaries and expectations that have been established, such as termination of employment or residency. 2) Implement An Easy To Understand And Complete Reporting Procedure Another effective tool that home care facilities can utilise when it comes to minimising the instances of bullying is to implement an easy to understand reporting procedure, such as a periodic survey. The survey in question could be conducted periodically on residents of a home care facility, by a third party association that does not actively partake in the activities that the general staff does. Additionally, the community manager can implement an anonymous reporting procedure, that give individuals who have been victimised by bullying, the opportunity to report their negative experiences anonymously without fear of repercussions. 3) Give The Resident's Family Members The Option Of Having A Hidden Camera Installed And Use That Policy As A Deterrent While the whole concept of giving care home bath resident's family member the option of having a hidden camera installed at their own expense, may see counterproductive at first glance, consider this. By making this option available, you can essentially minimise the risk that your establishment may get sued in the future. Back in April of 2014, BBC Panorama revealed an incident, where a care home facility got sued for incompetence. During the documentary it was revealed that a care home resident was abused by various staff members repeatedly for a duration of one month. However, if the staff members of said facility, was aware of the fact that the facility itself implemented a policy that allowed the utilisation of hidden cameras within each resident's room, this would have served as a deterrent to discourage staff member related abuse/bullying. 4) Reduce The Workload Of Staff Members In a wide majority of care home related bullying incidents, the staff member in question, did not bully the residents of the facility, simply because they were inherently bad, in most of the cases, the staff members utilised bullying as a way to cope with a lack of autonomy and excessive workloads. As such, by implementing a system that is aimed at providing a more stress free working environment for the staff members, you can effectively minimise the instances of bullying that may occur within the facility.
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