Maria Gough and the team from Setfords have recently succeeded in settling a claim against the Ministry of Justice, on behalf of a client who developed PTSD as a result of witnessing traumatic events in the prison in which he worked.
The client started working for the Ministry of Justice in 1994 and became a Discipline Officer in 2000.
During his 25-year service, he was over-exposed to trauma – both minor and major incidents – on an almost daily basis. Many of his roles involved working in particularly high-risk areas with vulnerable prisoners. He was often chosen for these roles because he was an experienced officer. However, he was often assigned to a new role when another officer was moved to a low-risk unit under the Ministry of Justice’s Rotation Policy, but he didn’t benefit from a break in those roles in the same way.
In April 2015, he was signed off work for a number of months after he suffered from a Transient Ischaemic Attack. He was signed off work again in 2017 due to side effects from his medication. As such, the Ministry of Justice was aware that he was vulnerable and at high risk due to his medical condition and medications.
In May 2018, the client was assigned to the mental health unit on the in-patient hospital wing inside the prison. He describes this as ‘the most volatile and dangerous area he has ever worked in.’
Despite working on the mental health unit, he did not receive sufficient training to deal with the type of prisoners and incidents. Nor did he receive any counselling or clinical supervision to help him cope. Plus, due to understaffing, overwork, and lone working without appropriate support, every day was an uphill struggle.
In May 2018, he had to deal with a particularly traumatic and violent incident. The Ministry of Justice’s Post Incident Care Policy outlines that after a traumatic incident, a number of actions are considered to be mandatory, including that the staff member is provided with practical and emotional support and information and that vulnerable staff exhibiting signs of extreme distress are identified. The client is not aware that any of the actions were taken following this incident.
The client was also not aware that his reaction to the incident could have been the start of PTSD or a similar condition, because he was not given any information or training about the risks and what to look out for. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that something wasn’t right and reached out to the Manager of Health Care in an email, stating that he was having problems sleeping, feeling anxious, finding it hard to concentrate, and needed to talk to someone from outside of the prison. The claimant did not receive a response. He was also not provided with contact details of the Care Team, EAP or counselling services. He wasn’t referred to Occupational Health, nor was a risk assessment conducted to assess the suitability of his role or determine if he should be rotated to a less traumatic area.
Due to a lack of intervention from his employer, the claimant felt compelled to carry on as best as he could at work. Had he been given information about post-traumatic stress, it is likely he would have identified the symptoms and followed up with his GP or a counselling service. Had his cry for help been actioned, he could have received appropriate treatment and steps could have been taken to address his symptoms with a long-term plan to help him cope in work. Unfortunately, his mental health started to decline.
In February 2019, the claimant sustained a knee injury during a planned intervention on a prisoner. The same night, he had a vivid nightmare where he started to relive the events of May 2018. Following this, his sleep was constantly disturbed. During the day, he started to feel low, angry, and emotional, which affected his family life. He was absent from work for around two months due to his knee injury. During this time, he alerted his employer to the fact he was not sleeping properly. No follow-up was offered in respect of his mental health. He felt ignored and that his concerns were being downplayed, but he tried to carry on as best he could.
Around October 2019, another particularly traumatic incident occurred. The same day, he contacted his GP and was signed off work. The claimant considered this incident as the last straw, along with the lack of support and response from his employer to previous incidents. As a result of these failings and the long-term exposure to trauma, he felt he could no longer cope.
In November 2019, a phased return to work was agreed. He arrived to his first shift after a night of vivid dreams and nightmares. He informed his line manager and the governor of the prison that he was feeling terrible and needed to speak to someone because he could not get the disturbing thoughts out of his head. He did not receive a response to this until 4 days later, and no help was offered to address his issues.
He was signed off work again a few days later. Later in November, he was emailed confirming some support would be organised. He was contacted by Occupational Health and a report was forwarded to enable the Prison Service to arrange counselling. After several failed attempts, he finally spoke to a counsellor in December 2019, who recommended CBT to treat his PTSD and said that a referral would be made.
He chased this referral several times before being advised in February 2020 that CBT was not available, his line manager should have made the referral instead of the counsellor, and that he would benefit from EMDR rather than CBT. Subsequently, his line manager made the referral, and he finally began treatment in March 2020.
In order to secure the settlement for this client, Maria Gough and the Setfords team had to prove that there was a foreseeable risk of harm to the client. This was established in the Ministry of Justice’s Post Incident Care Policy, the client’s existing medical condition and reaction to his medication, and the fact that he had alerted them to the fact that he was struggling after the May 2018 incident.
The team also had to prove that a breach of duty and contract had occurred. They were able to prove that the Ministry of Justice had failed to follow their own policies on dealing with traumatic events. Overall, they had failed to take sufficient care for the client during his employment.
As a result of the Ministry of Justice’s breach of duty, the claimant has suffered a decline in his mental health and has been diagnosed with PTSD. He suffers from nightmares, vivid dreams, and flashbacks relating to the traumatic incidents he has been exposed to and will be unable to return to work for the foreseeable future.
The Setfords team were able to settle this case just ten days before trial for a sum of £287,000.
If you have had a similar experience, we may be able to assist you with a claim. Please get in touch with us on mgough@setfords.co.uk to discuss how we may be able to help you.
