F106: Safety Issues

F106: Safety Issues

People with developmental disabilities should be given opportunities to take risks and to learn from their experiences. For example, learning to swim can involve risks, but people with disabilities should not be prevented from learning to swim if they would enjoy this activity. As a community service worker, you should be prepared to allow people to learn from making minor mistakes, but you should never allow people to be in dangerous situations where serious accidents can happen. If you are aware of unsafe conditions in the environment, you can prevent injuries. It is important for you to be able to recognize potential dangers and help others to create and maintain safe environments.

Accidents are unplanned events that can cause injuries or death. Almost all accidents – about 85% – are caused by unsafe behaviour. The remaining accidents – about 15% – are caused by unsafe environments. Your ability to recognize and change unsafe behaviour and unsafe environments will contribute to the health and safety of people with developmental disabilities. You can help to make the environment safer by keeping it organized and neat.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, you will be able to:

1. Describe the contents of standard types of first aid kits, and be able to locate the first aid kits in your agency.
2. Evaluate the environment of the individuals you support in order to identify, prevent, and/or correct any health and safety hazards.
3. Describe your agency’s procedure for handling a disaster, accident, or medical emergency. 

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