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Protecting whistle-blowers – addressing misconduct and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace

In June 2022, the final report titled Enough is Enough from the WA Parliamentary Inquiry into sexual harassment against women in the fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mining industry uncovered appalling behaviour in the industry. The inquiry called on companies in the resources sector to remove the barriers that deter some workers from making complaints by using anonymous reporting platforms – such as Crime Stoppers WA’s ‘Safe2Say’. This paper, delivered by Shane Entriken, Partner of Piper Alderman and Board Member of Crime Stoppers WA, and Dr Vince Hughes, CEO of Crime Stoppers WA, will briefly touch upon the current laws and requirements on whistle-blower protections, and employer duties to workers and addressing misconduct and inappropriate behaviour. It will then describe how the anonymous two-way integrity reporting platform Safe2Say, enables companies to ensure compliance with these laws and regulations, and build trust. This innovative and not-for-profit platform has been developed by leveraging off Crime Stoppers WA 25 years of experience and expertise. It is a tool that enhances organisational culture, reputation and worker well-being by providing a safe, external, independent, trusted platform to report misconduct or inappropriate workplace behaviour, such as sexual assault, aggression, bullying, harassment. Safe2Say is unique in that it provides a two-way chat facility and guaranteed anonymity to the person making a complaint. It is unique as the reporter cannot be traced.

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Essential reporting items within a law enforcement recruit injury and physical performance database: A modified Delphi study

ObjectiveCollate the perceptions and experience of relevant key stakeholders to develop reporting guidelines for epidemiological injury and physical performance data within law enforcement agencies recruit training programs. DesignAn augmented Delphi consensus process. MethodsInitial item generation occurred via online, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews, and followed by one survey round. Items generated from interviews were categorised within three main categories: i) Demographic data, ii) Injury data, and iii) Physical performance data. Participants represented one-of-six target groups: Police officers; Police physical training staff; Police occupational health and safety staff; Elite sport high performance staff; Military high-performance staff; Physical activity injury epidemiologists. ResultsA total of 15 representatives (53% women) from six stakeholder groups were included. Other than responses directly related to item generation, three main themes emerged from round one: i) recruits are not likely to report all data being requested truthfully, ii) data that is recorded must be acted upon, and iii) body fat assessments should not be included in this population with focus instead being placed on performance. Three separate reporting databases were generated. ConclusionOur study established clear demographic, mental health/physical injury, and physical performance data to be collected in a law enforcement recruit training program for injury surveillance and performance monitoring. Furthermore, we identified several items that were classified as relevant, but unlikely to be reported truthfully. These items can help inform current practice and assist clinicians to determine the trustfulness of information received by patients when working within law enforcement environments.

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Open Access
Injury Profiles of Police Recruits Undergoing Basic Physical Training: A Prospective Cohort Study

Purpose A lack of published epidemiological data among police recruits presents a major challenge when designing appropriate prevention programs to reduce injury burden. We aimed to report the injury epidemiology of Western Australian (WA) Police Force recruits and examine sex and age as injury risk factors. Methods Retrospective analyses were conducted of prospectively collected injury data from WA Police Force recruits between 2018–2021. Injury was defined as ‘time-loss’ and injury incidence rate per 1000 training days (Poisson exact 95% confidence intervals) was calculated. For each region and type of injury, the incidence, severity, and burden were calculated. The association between age, sex, and injury occurrence were assessed using Cox regression time-to-event analysis. Results A total of 1316 WA Police Force recruits were included, of whom 264 recruits sustained 304 injuries. Injury prevalence was 20.1% and the incidence rate was 2.00 (95%CI 1.78–2.24) injuries per 1000 training days. Lower limb injuries accounted for most of the injury burden. Ligament/ joint injuries had the highest injury tissue/pathology burden. The most common activity injuring recruits was physical training (31.8% of all injuries). Older age (Hazard Ratio = 1.5, 95%CI = 1.2 to 1.9, p = 0.002) and female sex (Hazard Ratio = 1.4, 95%CI = 1.3 to 1.6, p < 0.001) increased risk of injury. Conclusion Prevention programs targeting muscle/tendon and ligament/joint injuries to the lower limb and shoulder should be prioritised to reduce the WA Police Force injury burden. Injury prevention programs should also prioritise recruits who are over 30 years of age or of female sex, given they are a higher risk population.

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Open Access
Quality and safety indicators for home care recipients in Australia: development and cross-sectional analyses

ObjectivesTo develop and examine the prevalence of quality and safety indicators to monitor care of older Australians receiving home care packages (HCPs), a government-funded aged care programme to support individuals to live at home independently.DesignCross-sectional.SettingHome care recipients, Australia.Participants90 650 older individuals (aged ≥65 years old and ≥50 years old for people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent) who received a HCP between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2016 nationally were included.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe Registry of Senior Australians developed 15 quality and safety indicators: antipsychotic use, high sedative load, chronic opioid use, antimicrobial use, premature mortality, home medicines reviews, chronic disease management plan, wait-time for HCP, falls, fractures, medication-related adverse events, weight loss/malnutrition, delirium/dementia-related hospitalisations, emergency department (ED) presentations and pressure injuries. Risk adjusted prevalence (%, 95% CI) and geographical area (statistical level 3) variation during 2016 were examined.ResultsIn 2016, a total of 102 590 HCP episodes were included for 90 650 individuals, with 66.9% (n=68 598) level 1–2 HCP episodes (ie, for basic care needs) and 33.1% (n=33 992) level 3–4 HCP (ie, higher care needs). The most prevalent indicators included: antibiotic use (52.4%, 95% CI 52.0 to 52.7), chronic disease management plans (38.1%, 95% CI 37.8 to 38.4), high sedative load (29.1%, 95% CI 28.8 to 29.4) and ED presentations (26.4%, 95% CI 25.9 to 26.9). HCP median wait time was 134 days (IQR 41–406). Geographical variation was highest in chronic disease management plans and ED presentations (20.7% of areas outside expected range).ConclusionA comprehensive outcome monitoring system to monitor the quality and safety of care and variation for HCP recipients was developed. It provides a pragmatic, efficient and low burden tool to support evidence-based quality and safety improvement initiatives for the aged care sector.

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Open Access
Research on the Driving Factors for the Development of Inclusive Finance in Rural Commercial Banks: Market Competition or Government Intervention?

Based on the survey data of 43 rural commercial banks in Jiangsu Province, China, from 2015 to 2018, 14 indicators among 3 dimensions—coverage, business implementation and service quality—were selected to establish the inclusive finance index of rural commercial banks. The impact of market competition and government intervention on the development of the inclusive finance of rural commercial banks and the mechanism were empirically tested. The heterogeneous performance of market competition and government intervention in different market conditions were also thoroughly discussed. The results show that both market competition and government intervention can help reduce the pricing level and broaden the service coverage of rural commercial banks, which can promote the development of inclusive finance. But the role of market competition has a stronger impact than that of government intervention. The heterogeneity test shows that market competition plays a more significant role in the regions with higher levels of market competition and financial development, and in the southern and central Jiangsu Province, where the economy is relatively more developed. However, in the regions with lower levels of market competition and financial development, as well as in the northern Jiangsu Province, with a relatively backward economy, government intervention significantly improves the degree of inclusive finance of rural commercial banks. Finally, we advocate that the roles of market and government should be applied according to local conditions, and the development of the inclusive finance in rural commercial banks needs to be continuously promoted.

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Open Access
Around the world in 16 days: the effect of long-distance transmeridian travel on the sleep habits and behaviours of a professional Super Rugby team

ABSTRACT There is a scarcity of research examining the effects of long-distance transmeridian travel (LDTT) on the sleep and match performance of team sport players. To address this, 37 elite male rugby union players from a Super Rugby team undertaking LDTT were recruited. The participants completed validated sleep questionnaires and wore a wrist-worn activity monitor (Readiband™) during a Super Rugby season (including during periods of LDTT crossing 5, 6, and 13 time-zones) to ascertain objective measures of sleep. Sleep measures were compared using mixed model analysis to ascertain the effects of competition and LDTT on sleep. Total sleep time (TST) increased in the days prior to matches, and decreased following matches (accompanied by a later time at sleep onset), particularly when next-day early-morning flights were required. TST was decreased when sleep was attempted during LDTT, except for in the last travel bout where players napped in addition to achieving night-time sleep. TST was also reduced for the night immediately following LDTT, except for in Condition 3 where players delayed wake time and also achieved naps. This study exemplifies the challenges that team-sport athletes face in obtaining regular sleep when LDTT is required.

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Stalkers: Specialists Versus Generalists.

AbstractIt is known that many domestic violence (DV) offenders also commit violent and nonviolent offences that are not domestic in nature. Stalking frequently evolves from DV contexts. The present study used police data to explore (i) the extent to which stalking offenders in Western Australia specialize in stalking, (ii) the frequency of involvement in DV offending by stalking offenders, and (iii) the types of offences that co-occur with stalking offences. The dataset covered 404 individuals who were identified by the Western Australia Police Force as the offender for a stalking offence between January 1st, 2003 and July 30th, 2017. Only a minority of the offenders specialized in stalking, with the majority offending in other ways against the index victim and also offending against others via a broad range of offences. Although less than 10% were recorded as having carried out domestic assaults, more than half had broken restraining orders. Like DV offenders, the stalkers in this sample were largely generalist offenders. It was not clear, however, what proportion of offences against the same index victim were directly related to stalking. Stalking is a course of conduct that often involves individual acts that may be offences in themselves. What is clearer is the finding that for many stalkers, stalking forms part of a wider pattern of antisocial activity. Those stalkers who do not specialize in stalking may be less likely to benefit from intervention efforts that are focused solely on stalking.

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