Our research promotes practices, products, and policies that address occupational safety, environmental safety, and patient safety in both home care and hospitals.

What's New

• Recent Safe Home Care research findings on home care aides' experiences of verbal abuse was covered in the press following its publication during July 2019 - "Home health care aides often experience verbal abuse from clients."
• On April 12, 2019 the Center for Gerontology Research and Partnerships (CGRP) hosted the 5th Annual Healthy Aging, Living Well Forum at UMass Lowell. Pia Markkanen, Sc.D. and other Safe Home Care Project researchers collaborated in the Forum's organization as part of CGRP. Read more in the UMass Lowell news story: Healthy Aging Forum Features Age-friendly Initiatives and Workforce Health Research.
• On June 10, 2019 Pia Markkanen, Sc.D., presented Safe Home Care work at the 2nd Global Carework Summit in Toronto, Canada. Her presentation focused on findings of the Project's qualitative phase on cleaning and disinfection in home care. The Summit program and abstracts are available at the Global Carework Summit website.

Newsletters

Read our Spring/Summer 2019 newsletter (pdf) to find out what's new in the project.

    Previous newsletters:

• Summer 2018 (pdf)
• Winter 2017 / 2018 (pdf)
• Summer 2017 (pdf)

Previous Events

• 2018 Events

Publicly Available Research

Many of the Safe Home Care Project's peer-reviewed articles are available to the public via open access (can be read, downloaded, and shared at no cost). Here are some of the most recent open access publications:

• Home care aides' experiences of verbal abuse: a survey of characteristics and risk factors - journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in July 2019.
• Cleaning and disinfection in home care: A comparison of 2 commercial products with potentially different consequences for respiratory health - American Journal of Infection Control in April 2018.
• Risk of Sharps Injuries to Home Care Nurses and Aides: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in November 2017.
• Safety Risks Among Home Infusion Nurses and Other Home Health Care Providers - Journal of Infusion Nursing in July/August 2017.
• Risk of sharps injuries among home care aides: Results of the Safe Home Care survey - American Journal of Infection Control in April 2017.
• Occupational health of home care aides: results of the safe home care survey - Occupational and Environmental Medicine in April 2016.