About the Safe Places Project

Long-term care should be a safe place to work and a safe place to live. Yet, long-term care settings can be sites of violent situations. Violence can cause physical, psychological and emotional harm to staff. At the same time, being labelled as violent or difficult can impact older adults’ sense of self, care relationships, and quality of care. There is an urgent need to address different forms of violence and strengthen violence prevention strategies for the well-being of staff and older adults residing in long-term care. To do this, it is important to understand the conditions surrounding violence. The Safe Places for Aging and Care Project, is a four year project based out of Brandon University that focuses on understanding how and why features of care environments influence violent situations.

 

Research Objectives 

  1. Document how differing settings of care (home care and residential care) shape experiences of and responses to violence among older people and carers;

  2. Scan and assess the overall effectiveness of specific individual, regional and organizational strategies for limiting violent situations and promoting safety; and

  3. Develop an anti-violence policy framework in partnership with knowledge user collaborators.

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Defining Violence

Violence within settings of care for older adults has been called abuse, challenging behaviors, behavioral disturbances, aggression, responsive behaviors, and violence. Most of these terms focus on individuals’ actions. When people use these terms, they often forget to consider the impact of policies, practices, institutional culture, and environment on these actions. For the Safe Places for Aging and Care project, we use a broad definition of violence, which includes behaviors that may result in social, emotional, sexual, and/or physical harms, which ultimately inhibit individual self-development and self-expression. By understanding where and when violence takes place, we aim to promote more effective violence prevention strategies and make safer places to work and live.