In the US, assaults and violent acts are the third-leading cause of work-related deaths. In Pennsylvania and California, 57 per cent of social workers (678 out of 1,129 respondents) reported they experienced one or more types of client violence. Another 43 per cent said they experienced property damage and 83 per cent said they were threatened by a client.
In a study carried out in Ontario, Canada in 2001, 87.8 per cent (144 out of 171) reported being verbally harassed and 29.3 per cent were sexually harassed. Another 63.5 per cent reported being threatened with physical harm, and 28.6 per cent were physically assaulted but not injured.
At present there are about 200 social workers employed in various hospitals and with different agencies, including Appogg, and Sedqa.
About two years ago two separate incidents involving social workers occurred within the span of a week. In the first case, the social worker’s car was vandalised, and in the second case two social workers were attacked by a client. Luckily both social workers were unharmed.
Soon after, the board of the Maltese Association of Social Workers (MASW) met to discuss safety procedures that could be implemented to protect social workers. The board met again last Monday to discuss a list of health and safety policies that were drawn up recently.
Manwel Mangani, secretary of MASW, said the reason that such a long time had elapsed since the first meeting was that no serious incidents had occurred since that period.
Mr Mangani stressed that social work does not involve a high number of assault and violence-related incidents, and the incidents that took place were few and far between. These mainly involved verbal abuse and very few social workers were threatened physically over the years. In fact, Mr Mangani pointed out that as far as he could remember, no case of physical assault was ever taken to court.
When dealing with a tricky situation, a social worker should remain calm and try to alleviate the tension. However if the social worker still feels threatened, then the best option would be to leave quietly. Unfortunately, Mr Mangani added, social workers receive no training on how to deal with such situations and the health and safety policies would thus act as guidelines to minimise possible risks. As regards safety in the physical environment where social workers meet their clients, it was suggested that fire-fighting equipment, a security system, appropriate fire exits and possibly an intercom and an alarm buzzer should be standard. Social workers, especially women, should wear appropriate clothes, and all house visits by social workers should be carried out in two’s, especially for the first time.
Several of the policies were adopted some time ago. It is extremely important that a social worker out on a home visit informs colleagues about his/her whereabouts in case of an emergency.
Personal information about staff must be kept confidential – no member of staff should give personal information about another colleague. If a social worker is out on duty, other members of staff can’t provide information as to their whereabouts.
It is also important to keep in mind that the health and safety procedures discussed are only a general outline and will be further developed according to a specific unit’s needs.