Hospital worker claims toxic culture of bullying is leaving her colleagues suicidal and suffering panic attacks

• Stevie-Lee Semgreen resigned from Townsville Hospital in June this year 
• She did a year of night shift and claims hospital ignored her complaints  
• Managers and supervisors at the hospital have been accused of bullying
• Several employees suffer panic attacks, intense anger or feeling suicidal  
• The hospital said it provides effective channels for employees to complain
  

Stevie-Lee Semgreen worked on night shift for an entire year at Townsville Hospital until she resigned in June, saying her complaints were ignored by the hospital's management

A WOMAN has resigned from Townsville Hospital, Queensland, Australia claiming a toxic work environment has left several employees suicidal and others with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Managers and supervisors have been accused of bullying and harassing staff over the past three years. Several employees have taken sick and stress leave while others have suffered from panic attacks, severe anger and post-traumatic stress disorders, staff members claim.

They said incidents of verbal abuse had been reported, including inappropriate comments on people’s weight and workers being told they were not wanted on their rounds.

One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, launched an external review of Townsville Hospital after she lodged a complaint saying she felt suicidal

Hospital managers have been accused of bullying over a three-year period leaving several staffers suffering panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorders and suicidal thoughts (stock image)

The Bulletin has been told dozens of complaints had been made to Townsville Hospital’s human resources department and the Australian Workers Union, but workplace issues, including heavy workloads, were being ignored.

However, Townsville Hospital and Health Service acting chief executive Kieran Keyes said the hospital had proven and effective channels for staff members to escalate concerns.

Former employee Stevie-lee Semgreen said she resigned as a result of the ongoing issues in June and has since moved to the Sunshine Coast. Ms Semgreen, who worked for a year on permanent night shift, said her complaints were brushed aside.

“I was told by one woman at AWU that by putting in a complaint, I was putting a target on my own back,” she said. “I had asked a few times if I could take my issues further but hospital’s management told me that I could not.”

AWU Queensland branch secretary Ben Swan said the union had been investigating Ms Semgreen’s complaints before she left the hospital. “The member concerned left Queensland Health and, as a consequence, that part of the investigation ceased,” he said.
“Our organisers do what they can to assist members through these processes.”

But two other employees, who requested anonymity due to fear of repercussions in the workplace, said they lodged complaints months ago that had still not been dealt with.
One woman called for an external review after she was left feeling suicidal.

“I’ve been with Queensland Health for many years and I’ve never witnessed anything like it,” the woman said. “I have had several workers tell me they are dealing with suicidal thoughts in the workplace because the bullying is so bad.”

AWU Queensland branch secretary Ben Swan said they were investigating Ms Semgreen's complaint about staff mistreatment before she resigned (stock image)

The employee said she had lodged complaints to the hospital and the AWU more than 12 months ago and had still heard nothing back. “We are isolated and alienated and not given any support,” she said. “Some of the workers feel they are powerless within their union.”

Another employee said she was still waiting to hear back about complaints that she had lodged six months ago.

Mr Keyes said the health service worked closely with staff and unions to resolve any issues. “The health service works closely and productively with unions who routinely raise workplace issues and act on behalf of their members at formal meetings with the health service,” Mr Keyes said.

AWU northern district secretary Bede Harding said complaints were taken seriously.
“All matters reported with the union by our members at Townsville Hospital have been and continue to be raised and addressed with the hospital’s HR executive team,” he said.
“Matters in relation to the advancement in careers and workload issues are also being addressed by the AWU formally with Townsville Hospital management.”

Source: http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/employee-quits-hospital-claiming-toxic-work-environment-and-bullying/news-story/9523cb59857b09a6c3a8bab21c1edfdd

Understanding PTSD's Effects on Brain, Body, and Emotions by Janet Seahorn at TEDxCSU

PTSD : The hidden wound, the silent scream



PTSD disrupts the lives of average individuals as well as combat veterans who have served their country. The person experiencing the trauma often then impacts the lives of his/her family, friends, and workplaces. PTSD does not distinguish between race, age or gender and often goes undiagnosed. Even with proper diagnosis, many individuals do not know where to turn to get help. Society needs to understand the aftermath of trauma especially combat trauma and how to prepare for warriors when they return home.

Janet Seahorn, Ph.D has been a teacher, administrator, and consultant for over thirty years. She currently teaches a variety of classes on neuroscience and literacy as an adjunct professor for Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. Jan has a Ph.D in Human Development and Organizational Systems. Her background includes an in-depth understanding of human development and neuroscience research as well as effective practices in organizational systems and change. She conducts workshops on the neuroscience of learning and memory, the effects of “at-risk” environments (i.e., poverty), brain development, and researched-based instructional practices. Jan has worked with many organizations in the business and educational communities in creating and sustaining healthy, dynamic environments. Dr. Seahorn has researched and studied the effects of trauma on the brain and how excessive or extreme trauma can impact changes in the brain’s neuro network and how that change impacts behaviors in s

VIDEO STORY : Bullied workers shattered; Workplace bullying costs Australian businesses an estimated $36 billion a year

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Bullying in the workplace is something that's rarely discussed, but it should be, as those whose lives it affects can be shattered forever.

Workplace bullying costs Australian businesses an estimated $36 billion a year.
In Victoria, the recently passed Brodie's Law has made bullying at work a criminal offence, but in every other state it's still not against the law.

Karen Carr lives a hair’s breadth from becoming yet another bullying statistic. She barely hangs on each day, having suffered months of ridicule, abuse and sabotage in a job she loved.
“It has reduced me to a shadow of my former self," Carr said.

WATCH STORY here - Video Link 

One in five Australian workers is bullied at work, with almost half of all victims simply leaving their jobs. It’s an epidemic that’s getting worse, and no company or industry is immune.
"This is an insidious disease that's of epidemic proportions," Carr said.
“Bullying is premeditated. It is intentional, repeated assault."

Carr still thinks of suicide daily. She is unable to return to work of any kind, and a successful career in newspapers has been destroyed by a pack of frenzied workmates. Despite this, she is the one punished, and the bullies have not even been reprimanded. “I am viewed as the criminal in this, and I am made to feel like that. Whereas the bullies are all living life just as they were seven years ago."

Nine years of constant harassment and bullying has left gentle giant Rob a quivering wreck, after he suffered a complete mental breakdown from taunts and abuse. Now his wife Tina is terrified to leave him alone, even for a minute. "It came to the point where Tina had to full-on wrestle me to the ground to get a knife off of me, because I was going to slit my throat," said Rob.
Workplace bullying, says Rob, destroyed his life.

“It was a day-to-day fight just to keep him from hurting himself, from killing himself, just to keep him alive,” Tina said. Rob now survives on a small pharmacy of pills and potions to get through every day. “People don't realise how serious bullying can be, and what it can do. People just think it's names in a schoolyard, but it is so much more than that," he explained.

Telstra linesman Levin Madeley is another bullying victim hounded out of his work by unrealistic pressures, crazy deadlines and workplace bullying. “I ended up having to go to the doctor before I did something really stupid," Madeley said. His wife Jenny knew something was wrong, but has no idea just how wrong or serious it was. “You think you know somebody really well, and Levin is my soul mate, so to not know that he was that close (to suicide), it hurts a lot," Jenny said.

Sadly some do take that terrible, final step. Nineteen-year-old Brodie Panlock jumped from a multi-story car park after enduring more than a year of workmates treating her like dirt at a Melbourne cafe. She was spat on, called fat and ugly, and once had fish sauce poured all over her. Under the tougher laws in Victoria, three so-called ‘workmates’ and the cafe owner were fined more than $300,000 after the all pleaded guilty.

Victoria is the only state to make bullying a crime, but is that enough?

Doctor Carlo Caponechia is doing a nation-wide study of workplace bullying and its terrible costs. He has been shocked by what he's uncovered. “One of the negatives is that it's not preventative. It takes for something bad to happen, like suicide or death or someone feeling very threatened and humiliated, and really negatively affected by this," Dr Caponechia said. “People are being hurt and they shouldn't be hurt in the course of their work."

But how do you fix a problem where the bulk of victims are too frightened to come forward?
According to Dr Caponechia “You have to make it safe for people to report, and you have to make sure people know how to report."

Carr is still waiting for her case to reach court. She’s hanging on, day by day, and praying for justice, but unable to banish her demons. “I will never forget. How can you forget an event that basically takes your life away as you knew it?"

Contact details

• Workplace bullying information - www.reachout.com

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or SANE Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263)

Defining Workplace Violence ... what leads to Trauma and PTSD

Work trauma is the adverse effects and impact on the employee's physical and/or emotional wellness, health and safety as a result of physical and/or emotional violence experienced in the workplace.

These symptoms typically include, but are not limited to, external wounds and injuries and/or symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), excessive stress and/or stress-related illnesses. (Steinman, 2003)

Corporate Aggression refers to all situations where the majority of employees or any minority group feel subjected to unilateral conscious, calculated or planned negative actions, attitudes, rules and/or policies imposed by the employer to serve the employer's interests, in a situation where these employees feel that they are collectively unable to defend themselves and/or approach and/or reason with the source of aggression and/or effect any changes. (Steinman, 2002)

1. Definition of the term “Workplace Violence”

Workplace violence is defined as single or cumulative incidents where employee(s) are physically assaulted or attacked, are emotionally abused, pressurised, harassed or threatened (overtly, covertly, directly, indirectly) in work-related circumstances with the likelihood of impacting on their right to dignity, physical or emotional safety, well-being, work performance and social development.[1]Includes: Any physical violence such as an assault or attack and psychological or emotional violence such as threats, abuse, bullying/mobbing, sexual harassment and racial harassment.

GLOSSARY: Violence appears as physical violence or as psychological violence or structural violence in different forms, which may often overlap. Terms related to violence are defined in the following GLOSSARY

1.1 Physical Violence: The use of physical force against another person or group that results in physical, sexual or psychological harm.
Includes beating, kicking, slapping, stabbing, shooting, pushing, biting, pinching, strangling, among others.[2]

1.1.1 Assault/Attack: Intentional behaviour that harms another person or group physically, including sexual assault (i.e. rape).

1.2 Psychological Violence: Intentional use of power, including threat of physical force, against another person or group, that can result in harm to family life, livelihood, physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. [3]Includes verbal abuse, bullying/mobbing, harassment, intimidation and threats.

1.2.1 Abuse: Behaviour that humiliates, degrades or otherwise indicates a lack of respect for the dignity and worth of an individual.[4]

1.2.2 Bullying/Mobbing: Repeated and overtime offensive behaviour through vindictive, cruel or malicious attempts to humiliate, disrespect or undermine an individual or groups of employees and includes, but is not limited to psychological pressure, harassment, intimidation, threats, conspiracies, manipulation, extortion, coercion and hostile behaviour which could impact on the worth, dignity and well-being of the individual or groups.[5].

1.2.3 Harassment: Any conduct based on age, disability, HIV status, domestic circumstances, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, race, colour, language, religion, political, trade union or other opinion or belief, national or social origin, association with a minority, property, birth or other status that is unreciprocated or unwanted and which affects the dignity of men and women at work.[6]

1.2.4 Sexual Harassment: Any unwanted, unreciprocated and unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature that is offensive to the person involved, and causes that person to be threatened, humiliated, degraded or embarrassed.[7]

1.2.5 Racial harassment: Any implicit or explicit threatening conduct that is based on race, colour, language, national origin, religion, association with a minority, birth or other status that is unreciprocated or unwanted and which affects the dignity of women and men at work.[8]

1.2.6 Threat: Any implicit or explicit promised use of physical force or power (i.e. psychological force, blackmail or stalking), resulting in fear of physical, sexual, psychological harm or other negative consequences to the targeted individuals or groups.[9]

1.3 Structural Violence
The intentional use of power and/or organisational systems and structures or laws against an individual or entity (employer, management, shareholders, employee, group of employees, client, government, unions) to carry out a covert or unethical agenda, enforce change or indulge in unfair practices to the disadvantage of the affected individual or entity.
Includes but not limited to the disrespectful handling of changes in the organisation, unrealistic redistribution of workload, intimidation, policies, procedures, regulations, manipulation, coercion to act in a certain way and so on, exercised by an individual or entity. [10]

source

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[1]Steinman, S: 2002-2007.
[2] Adapted from the World Health Organisation’s definition of violence.
[3] Adapted from the World Health Organisation’s definition of violence.
[4] Alberta Association of Registered Nurses
[5] Steinman, S: 2006
[6] Human Rights Act, UK
[7] ILO/ICN/WHO/PSI Joint Programme on Workplace Violence, 2001
[8]Adapted from Human Rights Act, UK
[9] ILO/ICN/WHO/PSI Joint Programme on Workplace Violence, 2001
[10] Susan Steinman, Workplace Dignity Institute, 2006

Research - Childhood trauma can shave years off life

Although this research is not about Bullying or Harassment in the Workplace, I thought that it was still of interest to post as Trauma is Trauma and the effects are lasting whether it be for a child or adult as the sufferer.

Report - Childhood trauma can cut your life short, according to new research that shows how adversity during childhood can shave a decade or more off your life.

"Our latest research shows that those reporting multiple adversities could shorten their lifespan by 7 to 15 years," Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, a health psychologist at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, told a Saturday sesson of the American Psychological Association meeting here.

Kiecolt-Glaser and her research partner Ronald Glaser and co-authors found that "childhood adversity can lead to inflammation and cell aging much earlier than for those who haven't experienced these events." Such adverse events include losing a parent, being abused or witnessing parental marital strife.

"What we have is clear evidence that adverse childhood experience may have lasting measurable consequences, even later in life," she says.

Using a community sample of 58 caregivers for a spouse or parent with Alzheimer's disease or dementia and a control group of 74 demographically similar people who had no caregiving responsibilities, researchers analyzed participants' depression levels and occurrence of childhood trauma to see how negative emotions and stressful experiences affect known biochemical markers of stress.

The researchers measured several blood inflammatory markers, including telomeres, which are the ends of strands of DNA. Shorter telomeres have been linked with aging, age-related diseases and death.

Participants completed questionnaires on depression and responded to questions about past child abuse or neglect; a parent's death during childhood; witnessing severe marital problems; growing up with a family member suffering from mental illness or alcohol abuse; or lacking a close relationship with at least one adult during childhood.

"We found that childhood adversity was associated with shorter telomeres and increased levels of inflammation even after controlling for age, caregiving status, gender, body mass index, exercise and sleep," Kiecolt-Glaser says. "Inflammation over time can lead to cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers."

In the sample, 32% of participants reported some form of abuse — physical, emotional or sexual — during childhood; 68% reported no such abuse. Just under half (44%) reported no childhood adversities; 33% reported one, and 24% reported multiple adversities.

Participants with cancer or diabetes and those who had surgery recently were excluded from the study, as were those taking anti-inflammatory drugs.

Kiecolt-Glaser says the study found that childhood abuse and caregiving were also associated with higher levels of depression, which she says suggests that psychological factors may influence the incidence and progression of a variety of age-related diseases.

"Interventions that diminish stress or depression or inflammation may enhance health and have a positive impact on immune and endocrine regulation," Kiecolt-Glaser says. Psychological treatment, exercise, yoga and meditation can lessen these negative emotions, which she says may diminish the inflammation.

"In terms of the whole inflammation literature, I'm very much impressed by the data in terms of exercise and how powerful it is. Of all the things that people can do for themselves, exercise is perhaps one of the best interventions," she says.

source