Staff at Canberra's adult mental health unit have filed 57 reports about attacks on workers and 37 over physical or verbal threats, with more than 17 staff taking time off due to a workplace injury in the past year.
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ACT Health data shows there has been a rise in reported incidents involving staff at the unit in the past two years, increasing from 112 incidents in 2012-13 to 135 in 2013-14.
The data shows incidents involving physical contact with staff also increased from 49 to 57 while reports of "near misses" where contact with a staff member was attempted but not made rose from three to 13.
Reports of verbal and physical threats, where no contact was made with staff, declined from 47 in 2012-13 to 37 in 2013-14.
In 28 cases of an attack or threat reported last financial year, more than one report was filed – up from 13 duplicate reports in 2012-13.
During the past year, 18 staff members from the Adult Mental Health Unit took time off because of injury, and staff took a combined 152 weeks off work in 2013-14. In this financial year, two workers have taken time off for injury.
In 2012-13, 14 staff were away from work for a combined 160 weeks because of a workplace injury.
The Canberra Times revealed this week that staff at the unit have been working in an aggressive and violent environment, which culminated in a provisional improvement notice being issued at the unit in late July.
ACT Health has been working with staff and health and safety officers to develop an action plan to improve staff safety.
Aspects of the plan include early recognition of psychological distress by staff, reducing the acuity of people in the unit and supporting staff with rosters and training.
Mental health staff have raised concerns over an apparent increase in aggression and violence while a fire lit at the unit on Monday led to the evacuation of sixty people from the Orange Wing.
Katrina Bracher, executive director of ACT Mental Health, Justice Health and Alcohol and Drug Services, said she was worried by the level of aggression and violence in the unit.
"I worry about it from a staff perspective but I also worry about it from a clinical perspective in that people with mental illness that are admitted to an acute inpatient unit in pyschological distress and with high levels of psychological distress, there is a genuine risk of increasing aggression and then violence and then contact with our staff," she said.
"My concern is around good clinical practice and good clinical care in the unit so we're treating people with mental illness well and effectively and that is one of the key strategies to reducing aggression and violence."
Shadow mental health minister Giulia Jones said nurses were caring for patients and should not have to deal with being assaulted.
"It's the government's responsibility to provide nurses with a safe working environment," she said.
"It's not good enough that part of the government's response has been that nurses choose to work in this area, that's a cop-out. It needs to be safe."
Ms Bracher was confident the plan would help reduce violence and aggression at the unit.
"The adult mental health unit is like the intensive care unit for psychiatric care in the ACT. It's the highest level of acuity and highest level of psychological distress and risk in health care and so we continually look at ways to manage that risk and reduce the distress for the consumers in the unit but also the subsequent risk to staff being exposed to an aggressive incident," she said.
"We continually have workplace safety action plans that we look to improve the way we do things. We do see incremental improvements all the time."
