Nurses report more than 100 physical assaults in six months at Dhulwa Mental Health Unit

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation's ACT branch has aired serious concerns around nurses safety at the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit and has pleaded with the territory government to undertake a significant intervention at the Symonston facility.

The union's ACT branch secretary Matthew Daniel said there was an imminent risk of a "catastrophic event" at Dhulwa, with a culture that pitted patient rights against the rights of nurses.

He said nurses had pleaded with the government to keep them safe.

"Dhulwa nurses report being directed not to disengage or withdraw from unsafe situations involving violent and aggressive patients and instructions to allow patients to vandalise public property," Mr Daniel said.

"The culture at Dhulwa, which pits patient rights against the rights of nurses to work in a safe environment, is completely rotten. Most worryingly, the government appears to be blaming nurses for the level of occupational violence at Dhulwa."

Mr Daniel said records on the number of assaults had been kept by nurses who were not confident in the government's response.

"The government seems content to stand-by while poor governance, confused patient management, inconsistent and opaque systems of work, appalling HR practices and toxic relationships have created an environment where occupational violence has become business as usual at Dhulwa," Mr Daniel said.

Canberra Health Services executive director of nursing and midwifery Karen Grace acknowledge the issues and said the organisation was working to improve issues at the facility.

She said that the staff reporting system had recorded 83 physical assault in the six-month period to February but said most of these assaults occurred with a short period due to "particular circumstances in the unit at the time".

"Mental health nursing is probably one of the most difficult specialities within nursing and it's quite distinct to other types of nursing," Ms Grace said.

"With it comes inherent risks because of the nature of the patient cohort that we deal with in the mental health space so it can be quite difficult to navigate that very fine balance between staff safety and patient wellbeing and safety."

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Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley called for an independent review into Dhulwa.

"One nurse said working at Dhulwa was like being sent into the killing fields," Ms Castley said.

"I am particularly concerned at the damning comments by the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Association who say the ACT Government is ignoring their safety and workload concerns.

"The nurses describe the culture at Dhulwa as rotten and say the government appears to be blaming them for the violence.

"Nurses have pleaded with the government to keep them safe.

"This is a serious situation the government cannot ignore. Our mental health nurses fear a catastrophic event could happen and say violence at Dhulwa has become the norm."

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