Mental health facility shows assaults on workers are up

The number of assaults on employees by patients at a state mental health facility in Hagerstown has jumped in the past year.

Statistics released to The Baltimore Sun in response to a public records request show that there were 121 injuries to employees at the Potomac Center during the 12 months that ended June 30. There were 76 in the previous year. AFSCME, the union that represents the workers, called a news conference at the Hagerstown facility last month to protest the growing number of assaults on its members at facilities operated by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Assaults are down at three other large department facilities that treat seriously mentally ill patients.

Data for the Clifton T. Perkins, Springfield and Spring Grove hospital centers show that the three facilities were poised to close out budget years with small to significant decreases in assaults on workers.

In the case of Springfield, located in Sykesville, assaults by patients caused 37 injuries in the 10 months that ended April 30. There were 66 during the previous 12 months.

The Potomac Center is more troubled. Assaults there have been in double digits for 11 of the past 15 months.

Christopher Garrett, a department spokesman, said the center’s managers can’t explain the spike.

Jeff Pittman, a spokesman for AFSCME Council 3, said the Potomac Center is a campus-like facility that has traditionally specialized in treating patients with developmental disabilities, but the courts have been referring more difficult and dangerous patients to the department, which has been housing them at the Potomac Center without beefing up security.

Doug Mayer, a spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan, said the union had its facts wrong. The governor has increased the department’s funding, he said, and will continue to make it a priority.