Sydney Griffin-Beale is a nursing supervisor with Bayshore Home Care, and through her work sees the impact of workplace injuries. Recognizing this, Sydney recently took SafeCare BC’s peer coach training for violence prevention and safe handling.

“My job includes investigating acts of violence and workplace injuries and implementing an action plan, so I wanted to get some hands-on experience that would allow me to teach staff formally and informally,” she says. “Home support workers are unique in that they are isolated and often work alone.

Sydney believes education empowers workers and gives them the confidence to handle situations differently than they might have. “It’s my job to make sure staff have the tools necessary to do their job safely, and a big part of that is education,” she says. “Definitely, violence is an issue for our staff. It used to be that people just accepted it as part of their job, but this is changing. Workers don’t have to accept it, and there are tools that will help them.” Sydney is hearing from some of her staff that through the training, they can now recognize some of the triggers, which is helping to de-escalate situations.

Likewise, Sydney says the safe handling course was a great refresher on good body mechanics and equipment use, providing insight into current standard practice. She does a lot of informal training with staff, especially for clients with complex care needs. “There is tremendous value in having peer coaches, especially in the home care environment,” she says.