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What is Anti-Ligature Clothing?

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Anti-ligature clothing is used to promote the safety of vulnerable and often segregated individuals, preventing incidents of self-harm and suicide, whether in psychiatric hospitals, mental health hospitals, secure care facilities, custodial settings, or any other setting where an individual might be legally placed in seclusion. STRONGTEX Anti Ligature Clothing Emma Pring, a young woman, tragically took her own life on April 20, 2021, while receiving treatment at a privately operated mental health care facility. She was wearing anti-ligature clothing that, in my professional assessment, was not suitable for its intended purpose. The coroner will have been appalled at the absence of national standards regarding the production of anti-ligature clothing in the UK. The objective of this article is to explore and highlight the precise application and benefits of anti-ligature clothing. While extensive mental health research in recent years has focused on components of quality of care, p
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Human Bites: The Underreported Threat Faced by Healthcare Professionals

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Human Bite Injury Human bites used as a weapon in assaults against healthcare professionals are a growing concern. They form part of the many disturbing workplace violence statistics that have made national headlines in recent years, in countries around the world. Although violence in the workplace affects almost all sectors, it has become evident that the healthcare sector has the greatest rates of workplace violence injuries, with healthcare professionals being five times more likely to be assaulted and injured than others. They accounted for 73% of all nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses due to violence in 2018. ( U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics 2018. Workplace Violence in Healthcare ) Most healthcare professionals either have been bitten by another human being once or multiple times in their career, or they know of a co-worker who has been bitten. The wounds are usually located on hands, arms, neck, torso, and face. During a survey, a total of 34% of nursing assistants
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Stab Vests and Spike Protection

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Stab Vests Must Provide Spike Protection Spike protection cannot be guaranteed with stab vests or any other body armour. Shanks, spikes, ice picks, sharpened screw drivers, spiked clubs and strong hypodermic needles can indeed penetrate them if they are not offering specific, and more importantly CERTIFIED protection from such threat. Interestingly, the need for spike protection was identified by prison and corrections officers, who were at serious risk from injury from spiked weapons. It was due to those operational risks and threats faced by the officers, that in the mid-1980s the California Department of Corrections issued an urgent requirement for all stab resistant body armour to be tested against a commercial ice pick. The test method attempted to simulate the dynamics and force used by an attacker using a spike, intending to cause maximum harm or death. Growing Risk From Spike, Shanks and Double-Edged Knives However, society has changed, and some will argue not for the better.
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Bite Resistant Arm Guards

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Bite Resistant Arm Guards Bite resistant arm guards can help protect healthcare professionals, special educational needs teachers, carers and other working with individuals displaying challenging behaviour from physical injury, risk of infection, soft tissue damage and subsequent psychological distress. This is a fact. This statement is based on feedback from hundreds of professionals around the world, some of which who have been so kind and participated in our 2021 survey on the subject of ‘challenging behaviour’. Please read our comprehensive survey report . BitePRO®    is the world’s first brand of protective clothing and arm guards brand, dedicated to offering wearable scratch and bite protection. According to The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, bite injuries represent all emergency department admissions in the United States. A low figure of 1% of all emergency department admissions is nevertheless an incredibly high number overall. Many of us know that
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Blunt Force: The Underreported Threat Of Security Professionals

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What is ‘blunt force trauma’, and what type of injuries result from blunt force impact? Please let me answer this question in the shortest possible way, without throwing some hyper intellectual medical terminologies at you, I don’t understand myself. Let me do it in reasonable simple and understandable terms, and more importantly, within context of this article. Severe injuries and deaths resulting from blunt force trauma are some of the most common cases encountered by forensic pathologists. For instance, almost all transportation fatalities, including those involving road traffic collisions and pedestrians being hit by vehicles result from blunt force trauma. Blunt force trauma is also the consequence faced by homeland and private security professionals after being hit by a solid object, such as a fist, foot, knee, elbow, iron bar, extendable baton, baseball bat, crowbar, brick, bottle, can, chair, fire extinguisher, to name but a few, or indeed after being pushed hard against an
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The Personal Safety of University Security Professionals

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With a noticeable increase of young people moving away from home and beginning life on campus, university security guards are absolutely essential, in order to ensure the personal safety and protection of our students. In fact, organisations such as the U.S. based  IACLEA  (International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators) and UK based  AUCSO  (Association of University Chief Security Officers) have specialised themselves in, and dedicated themselves to improving the safety of universities and higher education colleges. However, it is rather saddening to see those countries, such as my home country Germany, still don’t see a need for dedicated security teams protecting these institutions. Why do we have teams of dedicated security professionals here, but not in many other European countries? I would love to hear from those in charge of university or college security, and include their comments, and update my article in response, if permission has been granted.
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Cut Resistant Fabric Can Help Protect Lives

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“Why did you actually create your  Cut-Tex® PRO  Cut Resistant Fabric, and what was the actual reason behind it?” This is a question I have been asked so many times over the past few years. Well, I founded PPSS Group in November 2010 and right from the start we set a mission statement: “Protecting Frontline Professionals from Human Threat”. Our key objective was to reduce the risk of injuries and prevent the loss of life. It was a little later, on 13 March 2011 when my friend (and father of my three god daughters) Craig Wylde was brutally assaulted. Having previously served as Infantry soldier in the British Army, Craig ultimately became a prison officer at the Category A (high security) Frankland Prison, in Durham, England. One morning he opened a prisoner’s cell door… the prisoner had a broken glass bottle in his hand… he slashed Craig under his arm… he severed his artery, muscle, tendons, ligaments and created severe nerve damage. Days later glass bottles of any type became ille
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