The New Social Worker Vol. 19, No. 4, Fall 2012 | Page 14

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Workplace Safety for Social Workers:
A Student’s Analysis and Opinion
by Shannon Alther, MSW

orkplace safety is a significant concern for many social
workers. According to a study
by the Center for Health Workforce
Studies and the National Association
of Social Workers (NASW) in 2004,
10,000 licensed social workers were
surveyed on workplace safety, and 44%
of the respondents felt that they were
“faced with personal safety issues in their
primary employment practice” (http://
workforce.socialworkers.org/whatsnew/
safety.pdf). Another national study of
NASW members in 2005 indicates even
more disturbing results for social workers
(http://www.naswma.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=51). Of
1,029 NASW members surveyed, “62%
had been subjected to psychological
aggression within the previous year, with
85.5% experiencing this at some point in
their careers; and 14.7% had experienced
physical assault perpetrated by clients
in the previous year, with 30.2% having
experienced it at some point in their career” (http://www.naswma.org/displaycommon.cfm? an=1&subarticlenbr=51).

Other studies have shown rates indicating that 50-88% of social workers have
experienced violence in the workplace
(Spencer & Munch, 2003). These rates
are alarmingly high, especially throughout the course of a social worker's career
(http://www.naswma.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=51).

We are trained as social workers to
look for our clients’ strengths, to advocate for them and to offer hope, but
we are not trained to assess the client’s
potential to harm us and to advocate
for our own safety needs. Is it that we
overlook ourselves to better serve our
clients? One possible answer to this question, according to Weaver, is that social
workers are in denial about the potential
for violence, because it allows them to do
their jobs without being fearful (Blank,
2005).

My research on this topic shows
that there are a variety of factors that
contribute to social workers not advocating for their safety, particularly within

If we truly want to take
care of our clients, we
must change our thinking
to also include taking care
of ourselves.

As a master’s level, second-year social work student researching this issue, I
kept coming back to several questions. If
workplace safety is such a concern, why
hasn’t my field agency taken time to train
us on safety matters more thoroughly?
Why hasn’t this issue been addressed at
school in our curriculum? Why haven’t
we learned skills to keep clients and ourselves safe? Why don’t we have stronger
penalties for crimes committed against
social workers? And why isn’t there
more literature and research addressing
workplace violence for social workers?

My thoughts on these questions
initially led me back to the core values of
social work.

the agency setting. As Spencer and
Munch (2003) discuss, there are several
studies that show that social workers
underreport incidents of client violence.
There are many factors that may lead
to underreporting, including agency
attitudes about safety, agency reporting
requirements, and social worker beliefs
about the nature of the job (Spencer &
Munch, 2003). Many agencies do not
give workplace safety a high enough
priority by developing a safety plan,
or by training staff on risk assessment
skills, verbal de-escalation techniques,
and non-violent self-defense (see http://
www.naswma.org/displaycommon.
cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=51).

My own experiences and research
indicate that social workers receive little
training on workplace safety and crisis
management, compared to other professions. For example, when I was working
in a rural elementary school last year
for my field placement, we participated
in regularly scheduled lock down drills
to practice what to do in the event of an
intruder entering the school or a violent
encounter. In contrast, my current mental health agency placement does not

12

Fall 2012

Discussion

The New Social Worker

have a “violence plan,” nor do we practice what to do in a violent encounter.
The most training I have received at my
agency is instruction to find a supervisor in the event that a client escalates or
becomes aggressive. There has been virtually no communication on basic safety
practices, such as de-escalation skills,
non-violent forms of self-defense, risk
reduction, or a safety plan of action, and
to my knowledge we do not have a safety
manual, even though we have a safety
committee (Saturno, 2012; http://www.
socialworkers.org/profession/centennial/
violence.htm). In my field placement, I
have had more instruction on what to do
during a fire than I have had on what to
do when a client escalates or becomes
aggressive.

Another profession that receives a
significant amount of training on mental
health crisis situations is law enforcement. In some jurisdictions, police
officers receive 40 hours of training in
de-escalation skills and managing crisis
situations, through the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training curriculum
(Oliva, Morgan & Compton, 2010). CIT
focuses on effective communication,
which includes de-escalation skills such
as active listening, using open and closed
ended questions, using mirroring and
summarizing statements, and role playing. In addition, the p ??6R?ff?6W'2&P??'6W'fVB?B&Wf?WvVBGW&??r&??R??0?'??W?W'B?V??F???&?fRF?V? ?6????2?WfV?F??Vv???6R?ff?6W'2???V?6?V?FW"??&R?V?F??V?F?7&?6?26?GVF???2F??6?6??v?&?W'2?F?RF?7&?G????G&????r?26?v??f?6?B??6?6??v?&?66????26?V?BW6RG&????rFV6???VW2??F?V?"&7F?6R6?W'6W2F??V???6RF?V?"FV6???r?'?WF?????rF?P?6????2?&VG??V&?VB?b7F?fR?7FV???r??W6??rVW7F?????r??'&?&??r?B7V??&????r7FFV?V?G2??B???rF?V?F?7&?6?26?GVF???2?B&??R????r?FVW66?F???6????2v?V?B&RW6VgV?F??V??7GVFV?G2?V&???rF?FVgW6R?vW"v?F??6?V?G2&Vf?&RF?R6?GVF????FV?F????&V6??W2f???V?B??WfV?F??Vv?6?6??v?&?W"6fWG??0???B&V??FG&W76VB??66????2?7GVG??'?7&?72?#????F?6FW2F?B?bS?P?6?6??v?&?7GVFV?G27W'fW?VB?( ?C?rP??