By Mike McNabb
Violence against social care staff has been in the news again so if I were a tad worried about my chances of surviving a home visit intact, Ray Braithwaite would be a useful mentor to have.
The session came against a backdrop of three social workers killed in two years while visiting clients in their own homes.
Braithwaite, who is a trainer in managing stress and aggression at work, disclosed the profile of the worker who was at risk of assault: female, young and inexperienced. Moreover they were more likely to be attacked after a client relationship had been established, with six months being a normal time to elapse before violence manifested itself.
Braithwaite gave a role call of those social workers murdered while visiting clients - 11 since 1984. But he said social care professionals were reluctant to report incidents such as scratching and spitting so the true scale of everyday assault was unknown.
He cited Leicestershire Council's non-tolerance campaign which resulted in the number of assaults plummeting.
Ruth Cartwright, of BASW, gave social workers in the audience who had been attacked the chance to relate their stories. They were more than willing: one said she could not even count the number of times she had been assaulted while working in residential child care.
Braithwaite presented a case study to three volunteers from the audience to judge risk from that situation and how those risks could be reduced. In an ideal world, everyone agreed, two workers would visit a client who might pose a risk but a show of hands in the audience suggested we were stuck in the real world of the lone social worker, not the ideal one.
The dilemma was whether the social worker should have the right to control the situation or intervene if there is a risk of danger. But what happens if the client has learning difficulties or Alzheimer's? How far should you intervene then in order to protect yourself? And would your organisation support your actions?
There were many engaging questions and no easy answers. Go to CareSpace to tell us your experiences of client anger and how your bosses reacted.
Comments (1)
I was interested by the reference to Braithwaite's assertion that the profile of the worker who was most at risk of assault is: female, young and inexperienced. I don't know the research to which he is referring here, but I could equally refer to exactly contrary research, such as is reported in Glynis Breakwell’s excellent 1997 book “Coping with Aggressive Behaviour”, which says that
"Those who were assaulted are found to be:
o Experienced with no record of incompetence
o Not risk takers and sensitive to cues in situations where they work
o Not confrontational or particularly provocative or authoritarian
o Physically capable and decisive in their actions
The stereotype [of people who were assaulted being provocative, incompetent, authoritarian and inexperienced] is misleading and counterproductive and if you believe it you would be wise to abandon it now.”
I wonder if one of the reasons why research might find a preponderance of young, female and inexperienced workers amongst those who have been assaulted is because there is a high proportion of people with this profile who have direct contact with clients? If this is the case, such headlines don't say anything beyond, "People who have direct contact with clients are more likely to be assaulted than those who don't"
AS I said, I don't know the research which Braithwaite quotes, and anyway, its not going to be helpful to start trading research. What I get from this, though, is that there is much more to violence risks than the profile of the individual worker. And it may be deeply unhelpful to focus too much on individual worker profiles as this may lead to victim blaming, rather than looking at the bigger picture. Surely its the interaction that's important. The worker can't influence their gender, age and experience (or at least can't do so very quickly!) but can work with their employer to look at the nature of the tasks they are being asked to fulfil, the control measures in place, the environment in which they do their work, service culture etc.
Posted by Tim Cooke | May 29, 2008 4:40 PM
Posted on May 29, 2008 16:40