On behalf of: Health Safety Well-being Ability Management
Island Health’s annual Outcome Goals and Infrastructure Requirements focus on violence prevention and workplace safety. To protect staff, medical staff, patients and volunteers from violence, we use a broad approach to violence prevention. This includes staff training, risk assessments and stopping violent incidents before they occur. We also use incident investigations to improve safety onsite and across the organization. These are part of our continued efforts to prevent workplace violence.
Recently, WorkSafeBC highlighted key opportunities for Island Health on Violence Risk Assessments and how violence risks are communicated. On May 14, 2026, Island Health entered a one-year compliance agreement with WorkSafeBC to reduce workplace violence risks.
As part of the agreement, Island Health will complete the following:
- Create high-risk Violence Risk Assessments where they do not exist or review and update existing ones.
- Implement required steps for leaders following completion of each Violence Risk Assessment.
- Review how violence-related behavioural alerts are entered, viewed and updated in the electronic health record.
Violence Risk Assessment updates are being done in phases. The phases are as follows:
- Phase 1 (May to August 2026): Emergency Departments
- Phase 2 (September to December 2026): Psychiatry and Mental Health units
- Phase 3 (January to April 2027): Identified medical inpatient units
Violence Risk Assessments will be updated as required at all other program units/sites following completion of Violence Risk Assessments noted above.
We are ahead of schedule as work is almost complete at the Phase 1 sites and units. Leaders and teams have leaned in with energy on this work, which speaks to its importance to strengthening a healthy and safe workplace.
More information
Reach out to your leader if you have questions.
Visit the WorkSafeBC Compliance intranet page for related resources, such as a list of affected areas, the compliance agreement, information about the Violence Risk Assessment process, and more.
Thank you for your participation in this work – your engagement is vital for improving violence prevention in the workplace.