Mental Health Nurses Define Yelling as Assault

The increasing use of synthetic cannabis is being cited as a reason for the rising number of assaults on mental health workers. In the first seven months of the year there were 131 reported assaults on Otago Southern District Health Board mental health services staff, a rise of 37% on the same period last year.

Mental health nursing director Heather Casey says that although she cannot pinpoint exactly how much the use of synthetic cannabis has influenced the increase in assaults, she claims that “it is having a significant impact on wards”.

On the other hand, Casey acknowledges that the reported increase in assaults is at least partially due to a new policy whereby staff are encouraged to report anything that they consider to be assault, including verbal attacks, rather than only reporting incidents that fall within health board definitions.

Meanwhile, despite a temporary ban being placed on 28 synthetic cannabis substances, a new legal high product “K2” has become available both in shops and online.

The Dunedin police have warned consumers to be wary of the new product, with Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken telling the ODT: “With K2, we see violent, irrational behaviour, mood swings and aggression. Most people that come in [to the police station] under the influence of cannabis are pretty mellow.”

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne has indicated that he hopes to have K2 off the shelves by the end of the year. Dunne says that new measures surrounding synthetic cannabis will mean “manufacturers of these products will have to prove they are safe before anything can come on the market.”

A local student reviewed K2, and told Critic that he would give it a 7 out of 10. “My arms and upper body felt like they were floating. It did fuck me up, but it didn’t slow me down physically, it just made simple tasks a bit more difficult to deal with mentally. I could see people getting anxious on it, but I had no feelings of anger or violence whatsoever. If someone was being violent on K2, it would probably be the person, not the drug.” Excellent.
This article first appeared in Issue 26, 2012.
Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Margot Taylor.