A question for DU social workers

[Giant Robot]

Given the recent murder of Kentucky social worker Boni Frederick while bringing a child back to her birth mother for a supervised visit, quite possibly the last visit since the mother's rights were going to be terminated, I was wondering what you all thought of this.

I am an MSW myself and work in the mental health field, so PS things are not with my experience, but I just wondered what all of your experiences have been. Has anyone ever felt threatened while on the job? Has anyone received threats or worse been assaulted during the course of your work? What safeguards does your agency have?

Very curious to hear from my fellow social workers. As for me, I have been on the receiving end of many threats but have never been assaulted. I have been uncomfortable in the presence of a couple of clients, but never to the point where I needed to request assistance, or changed my normal pattern of interaction. In fact for those folks in question, reacting like that would probably have made the situation worse. I guess I am lucky so far. So what about you?

[Bunny]

1. I'm not a social worker. Do you have any statistics on the number

of assaults on social workers? I'd be curious to know how often they are assaulted or worse. What happened to that woman in Kentucky was awful. Is it the type of thing that could have maybe been seen coming - I mean, if it was quite likely the last time this woman would have seen her baby, is it unreasonable to think that things could get ugly? Do you routinely send a deputy or something when you think there could be trouble?

[Giant Robot]

2. NASW reports in a survey of 100,000

of us that 44% reported being the target of some type of assault. This is not the best survey, but it was all I could find for you. NASW=National Association of Social Workers.

Like I said I don't work in protective services (PS) so I don't know how they function that well. I know they will ask for a police escort when they are removing a child as part of their standard procedure here. Whether there are police available and willing is another matter. Actually from what I have heard, our police where I live work very well with the social services, so I should not make any disparaging remarks.

At the agency where I work we do not do home visits. I have a panic button in the office here that is wired into central dispatch and the police come running rather quickly when that goes off. Never had to use it for real, but sometimes when the power goes it the switch gets tripped and I have 2-3 police cars surrounding the building very soon thereafter.

As part of being a social worker, I think, we should constantly be assessing any situation, just as good practice not just for safety. It is quite possible that a situation could turn ugly, especially when a parent and child are involved, or there is someone with a serious and persistent mental illness who may not be in full control of themselves, as was one of the cases where I was nervous. I cannot speak as to what Boni or her agency felt the situation was, or what the policy was there, but I do know that it just sounds like she walked right into a trap.

[Roon]

3. I have seen it a few times at Colorado AIDS Project

Not assaults, but threats and people getting loud and carrying on.