Every company owners or managers will tell you that personnel security is their top priority. While most of them mean it, it is unfortunately PR stuff for a few of them. Dangerous workplaces such as prisons and psych wards cannot afford to ignore their employees’ security and it is crucial for them to be able to count on an efficient duress system. In this article, we will explain on such a security system can prevent tragedies in dangerous workplaces.
Most Prison and Psych Ward Employees are Lone Workers
Even if these places host some very dangerous and unstable people, successive governmental cost cuts have forced prison and psych ward managers to reduce the number of employees working on the floor which means a lot of lone worker shifts.
These workers are exposed to danger by being alone with people with potentially explosive temper and they are constantly in harm’s way. However, their job is essential to our society and they need to be protected. Installing a great duress system in these facilities is a crucial step that their managers need to take.
How Can it Help to Prevent Tragedies?
A duress alarm (or as it is often called, a man down alarm), can help to prevent work incidents that can have fatal consequences for dangerous workplace employees by providing a way for them to send a distress signal to their colleagues.
Man down alarms use ultrasounds to send a wireless signal to a central receiver via a communication system. The personnel are given a button that they can press in case of emergency to notify other workers on site that they need help. Within 5 seconds from the time the lone worker presses his or her button, a distress signal is received by the central receiver and appropriate actions can then be taken. Once received by the central receiver, the distress signal can be sent to a wide variety of devices including cell phones, portable radios, display panels, computers and pagers. Some man down buttons are even delivered with a movement detection system.
As you were able to read, an efficient duress system allows lone workers to quickly call for backup. There is no doubt to us that these systems have saved numerous lives since their creation and this makes them an absolute necessity in dangerous workplaces.
This concludes our article on how a great duress system can prevent tragedies in dangerous workplaces. We hope that it helped you to understand how technology is ensuring the safety of lone workers everyday.