New, revised workplace violence prevention requirements for BHC organizations
Effective July 1, 2024, The Joint Commission approved new and revised workplace violence prevention requirements for all Joint Commission-accredited behavioral health care and human services (BHC) organizations. The new and revised requirements provide a framework to guide BHC organizations in developing effective workplace violence prevention strategies. The requirements address:
- Defining workplace violence, including a formal definition added to the Glossary
- Outlining leadership oversight
- Developing worksite analysis processes
- Developing policies and procedures to prevent workplace violence
- Reporting systems, data collection, and analysis
- Implementing post-incident strategies
- Providing training and education to decrease workplace violence
A Resource Center is being developed for the Joint Commission’s website. Additional information about the revised standards is available in the R3 Report. The new and revised requirements are posted on the Prepublication Standards page of The Joint Commission’s website and will publish online in the spring 2024 E-dition® update to the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Behavioral Health Care and Human Services (CAMBHC). For those customers who purchase it, the CAMBHC 2024 spring update service will include these new and revised requirements.
Workplace violence requirements were implemented in 2022 for Joint Commission-accredited critical access hospital and hospital programs (see the July 2021 issue of Perspectives) in response to workplace violence directly affecting the safety of patients and staff. A literature review and public field review were conducted to determine the applicability of similar requirements for BHC settings and services. A technical advisory panel of individuals representing various public and private organizations, as well as Joint Commission-accredited BHC programs, provided knowledge and expertise in examining the relevance of workplace violence prevention requirements to BHC providers.
For more information contact the Department of Standards and Survey Methods.