Sexual harassment of the home health care aide in the home setting

Abstract

Sexual harassment of the home health care aide by patients or family members is a common occurrence, yet underreported and seldom addressed either in the literature or in practice. So cial and cultural factors often prohibit the aide from reporting incidents and affect the response of supervisory staff. Agencies and, more specifically, supervisors have a responsibility to pro tect home care aides in their primary work setting. The combined effort of education, practical strategies, and a validating agency policy provides the basis of a responsible and effective ap proach to confronting the issue of sexual harassment of the home care aide. Key words: sexual harassment, home care aide, empowerment, policy