The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
(Cite as: 33 V.S.A. § 8201)
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§ 8201. Safety policies for employees delivering direct social or mental health services
(a)(1) The Secretary of Human Services, in consultation with each department of the Agency,
shall establish and maintain a written workplace violence prevention and crisis response
policy that meets or exceeds the requirements of this chapter in place for the benefit
of employees delivering direct social or mental health services.
(2) The Secretary shall ensure that the Agency’s contracts with providers whose employees
deliver direct social or mental health services and that are administered or designated
but not otherwise licensed by a department of the Agency include the requirement that
providers establish and maintain a written workplace violence prevention and crisis
response policy that meets or exceeds the requirements of this chapter in place for
the benefit of employees delivering direct social or mental health services.
(b) A written workplace violence prevention and crisis response policy prepared with input
from an employee delivering direct social or mental health services shall minimally
include the following:
(1) measures the provider intends to take to respond to an incident of or credible threat
of workplace violence against an employee delivering direct social or mental health
services;
(2) a system for centrally recording all incidents of or credible threats of workplace
violence against an employee delivering direct social or mental health services;
(3) a training program to educate employees delivering direct social or mental health
services about workplace violence and ways to reduce the risks; and
(4) the development and maintenance of a violence prevention and crisis response committee
that includes employees delivering direct social or mental health services to monitor
ongoing compliance with the violence prevention and crisis response policy and to
assist employees delivering direct social or mental health services.
(c) In preparing the written violence prevention and crisis response policy required by
this section, the Secretary and providers identified in subdivision (a)(2) of this
section shall consult the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Guidelines
for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers, as amended.
(d) A written workplace violence prevention and crisis response policy shall be evaluated
annually and updated as necessary by the violence and prevention response committee
and provided to employees delivering direct social or mental health services.
(e) The requirements of this section shall neither be construed as a waiver of sovereign
immunity by the State nor as creating any private right of action against the State
for damages resulting from failure to comply with this section. This section shall
not be construed to limit or eliminate any legal remedy available to an employee prior
to the enactment of this section. (Added 2015, No. 109 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 2017.)