One year ago, mother and psychiatric technician Donna Gross was murdered on the job at Napa State Hospital. On Sunday, Oct. 23, workers at Atascadero State Hospital will hold a vigil honoring her and commemorating the first anniversary of her death. Members of the community are invited to attend thi
They point to worker safety at state hospitals, some of which house patients from the criminal justice system. In October 2010, Napa State Hospital psychiatric technician Donna Gross, 54, was strangled by 38-year-old Jess Willard Massey. Massey, who had a criminal history, has been sentenced to 25 y
Last year, state workplace safety officials fined Napa State Hospital more than $100,000 in the October death of psychiatric technician Donna Gross, 54, and cited a lack of "adequate employee alarm systems" as a factor in her death.
Date: Jul 06, 2011
Category: Health
Source: Google
Proposals aim to improve safety in state mental hospitals
emblyman Michael Allen (D-Santa Rosa) is expected to convene in about a month to propose longer-term solutions. And a coalition of employee groups formed at Napa in the wake of Donna Gross' death has expanded statewide to demand safer conditions for staff and the more than 5,500 patients they treat.
Yet violence has increased systemwide, particularly at Napa. According to Cal/OSHA's citations, the patient charged with the October killing of employee Donna Gross had been granted a pass to circulate freely on the fenced-in grounds despite a history of recent attacks, stalking and illegal drug use.
The gravest citation says the hospital violated its own policies by not restricting patients' grounds passes based on their previous behavior. The hospital knew that the patient charged in Donna Gross' killing had a "recent history of aggressive behavior, illegal drug usage, and stalking," the citation states, but allowed him to wander "with no supervision, in a totally unstructured environment.