zest : track article base
This is one of a selection of general interest articles relating to the application of GPS tracking.
To find out more about how Zest Tracking helps its clients to exploit GPS tracking, whether it is for vehicle tracking, mobile phone, or Blackberry tracking or dedicated tracking units please explore the rest of this site, or contact us for an informal discussion
What our clients say...
"
It results in cost savings and deters against out–of–hours use ... affording us a significant reduction in our annual operational costs."
Mark Shelley, Shirley Shelley Industrial Contract Cleaners Read More...
Lone Worker Protection
An Example Of Satellite GPS Tracking In Lone Worker Protection
See also: Zest Traking's Lone Worker Solutions
One of the largest Mental Health Trusts in the UK has around 2000 staff including doctors, nurses, psychologists and other health professionals. The majority are potentially lone workers. Around 1000 staff work within the community or make home visits, including doctors who provide general care and make assessments under the Mental Health Act; community psychiatric nurses who provide help and support, including assessment, counselling, general advice, and management of medications; outreach staff who help people who find it difficult to use the Trust's services; and home treatment staff. All these staff are mobile and most use cars to travel between appointments.
Track Your Vulnerable Lone Workers using their Mobile Phone or Blackberry!
Zest : trak™ enables you to keep on top of your vulnerable staff's whereabouts using their GPS enabled Blackberry or Mobile phone.
Read more about our Lone Worker Protection Solutions
The Trust provides mental health care, and its facilities range from inpatient wards to community mental health centres. It also provides many other services such as forensic services and regional special services (for example for eating disorders).
These lone workers face a variety of risks in their day to day work, including:
- Staff have to visit inner city areas where the risks of violence are higher.
- Staff often have to visit clients in tower blocks or other similar buildings. Sometimes lifts are poorly lit and there are concealed spaces. Also, the public have access to buildings where staff may be working late at night.
- Many violent incidents occur in the evening and at staff changeover times. Doctors may have to visit peoples' homes late at night and sometimes require police support if there is increased risk.
- Doctors, community psychiatric nurses and community nurses might be believed to be carrying drugs and may therefore be targets for assault.
- Most people who have a mental illness are not violent but a small number sometimes display violence as a symptom of their mental illness.
- Withholding treatment can put both staff and members of the public at risk of violence and abuse.
Examples of incidents that staff have experienced include:
Buy a Lone Worker Alarm Protection device Now!
The Zest foretrack Mambo2 is the ideal device to give peace of mind to organisations that have people who find themselves in vulnerable situations.
- Physical assaults.
- Threats of physical violence, including the use of weapons. Staff have also seen weapons or drug-related items in the homes of some clients.
- Intimidating behaviour
- Staff being shut in a room and not allowed to leave.
To combat these risks the mental health trust is taking measures to ensure that their staff can remain contactable throughout their working day. Across the board, all community staff are issued with mobile phones. Moreover, along with other trusts, they are also evaluating the use of mobile phones with GPS satellite positioning capability. Satellite positioning locates staff at the exact address after they trigger an emergency alarm. The ambulance service provides the first response. The alarm opens a communication channel which is also recorded. Workers can decide what they want their emergency response to be. Based on experience to date, the Trust feels that this is an important safety mechanism for certain staff groups.
For staff who are at lower risk, then an alternative mobile phone system has also been considered. This requires staff to text their location to a centre before a visit. Although this is less expensive than the satellite positioning mobile phone system, the Trust has concluded that this approach does not enable an immediate response or identification of the exact position of the member of staff at the time of an incident, so is only favoured for staff at the very low end of the risk spectrum.