Mental health strain on nurses

an ambulance waited more than half an hour in the vehicle due to emergency department bottlenecks.

Gold Coast Health Mental Health and Specialist Services Acting Clinical Director Sandeep Chand said occupational violence in Robina’s mental health unit was often a result of increasing pressures on the system.

“In addition to increasing demand for our services, we’re also seeing more patients with higher acuity and complex drug-related issues that can take longer to respond to treatment,” he said.

“In isolated circumstances occupational violence incidents can result and we regularly train our staff to manage, respond to and report those rare incidents.”

Mudgeeraba MP and former nurse Ros Bates said the figures showed more needed to be done to protect nurses.

She said tougher court penalties, more security guards and a 24-hour police beat at Robina would help ease pressure on mental health nurses.

“Real mental health patients with real mental health problems are being turned away because the beds are full with ice patients,” she said.

“There’s even been reports of supposed mental health patients who are actually methamphetamine addicts being caught smoking an ice pipe in the rehab unit at Robina Hospital. We need to have more security guards.”

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union secretary Beth Mohle said the increase in incidents could be due in part to initiatives to encourage nurses to report attacks.

Health Minister Cameron Dick said the government had set up the Occupational Violence Oversight Committee to combat violence against workers and had boosted security at Robina in recent years.

“(We) increased the number of security staff at Robina Hospital by 80 per cent from 14.8 FTE (full time-equivalent staff) in 2013-14 to 26.7 FTE in 2016-17,” he said.

He said Robina Hospital had also employed a security supervisor operating 24/7.