![\"Toxic](\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/Toxxic.jpg\")
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October 29, 2024 —<\/em> When Ruth Johnson joined state service in 2005, she couldn\u2019t have imagined the turmoil she would face over the next nearly 20 years \u2013 from violent attacks, to requests for job adjustments being ignored, to eventually being pushed out of her job.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhile on duty at SBPC, a patient who should have been transferred to a secure unit, but was not, attacked me,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe three staff on the unit were unable to stop the patient from continuously punching me in my face. The panic button was not working and unfortunately, we discovered it after it was pressed. An alert did not go out due to the failure of the panic button. I held my arms crossed over my face for about five minutes.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, another patient came behind the staff desk and intervened, she said.\u00a0 Johnson spent the next 45 days recovering from the physical and psychological injuries. Even upon her return, she was still suffering and missed occasional additional days.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI told the executive director I could no longer handle working on the units,\u201d she recalls.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Knowing her future had to lie in other areas of the agency, she interviewed for a vacant discharge coordinator position and was hired. This role did not involve working on the units. Instead, she was responsible for seeking housing assistance in a pilot reintegration program, advocating for forensic people with mental illness.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over her remaining years at South Beach, she continued to require dental procedures to restore knocked out and misaligned teeth; psychotherapy; dermatology; orthopedic; and occupational therapies through Workers\u2019 Compensation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She continued to seek opportunities within her agency, taking the social work assistant 3 exam and interviewing for jobs that did not involve direct patient contact. In March 2017, she accepted a position at Brooklyn OPWDD as a social work assistant 3\/gatekeeper because it didn\u2019t involve direct contact. In 2021, that position was shut down by a manager (referred to here as a member of management), who demanded she take a role as a habilitation specialist 1, a grade 14, despite her title of social work assistant 3, a grade 17. While she was able to keep the salary grade, she was sent out in the field.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe informed me that I would be responsible for working in Brooklyn OPWDD IRA homes,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIn addition, I would be responsible for conducting goals which would involve direct care support for the people OPWDD serves with mental illness.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n PEF Field Services requested a meeting with the agency\u2019s HR department, but that meeting was declined because the member of management allegedly did not provide information on Johnson\u2019s new duties.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c[The member of management] continued to push out-of-title work,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIn December of 2021, I was unable to deter [the member of management] from plans to force me into a position that due to my post-traumatic stress disorder, I cannot do.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In January 2022, she submitted a request for a reasonable accommodation. The member of management\u2019s continued inconsistencies on questionnaires led to an eventual denial \u2013 a year later.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Ruth](\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/Ruth_Johnson.jpg\")
Johnson was the victim of an attack while working at the Staten Island DDSO, where administrative staff warnings about a client\u2019s violence toward other clients and staff fell on deaf ears. In September 2014, while working at South Beach Psychiatric Center as a social work assistant, she suffered the most brutal attack of her career.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n