by: elizabeth payne
when the pandemic began, health-care researchers margaret keith and james brophy feared what was coming in long-term care homes and hospitals across ontario.
they had spent three years interviewing workers about violence in health care and were shocked at what they had been hearing: regular physical and verbal assaults had become almost routine in a system that was badly understaffed, underfunded and unsupported.
when the pandemic hit, things got worse.
“we were certainly aware that long-term care, in particular, was at the breaking point,” said brophy. “the lack of support, understaffing and underfunding had all created a climate in which you could just see that disaster could occur. and that is what happened.”
brophy and keith, who both have phds in occupational and environmental health and are affiliated with the university of windsor and university of stirling in scotland, were just wrapping up years of work on a book about violence in ontario’s health-care system when the pandemic hit. it provided more disturbing material.
that book, code white: sounding the alarm on violence against healthcare workers, has just been published. a code white in health care is an emergency response to a violent incident.