If, before reading the title of this blog, you were asked to list five dangerous professions, what would you have said?
Fire-fighter?
Armed forces?
Roofer?
Lumberjack?
Police officer?
I would be highly surprised if you placed ‘social worker’ in this list. When, in fact, social work is one of the most hazardous occupations in the world – as any social worker will tell you.
Over the years, hundreds of social workers have been attacked, beaten, stabbed, and even killed by their clients whilst making home visits and going about their daily business.
In particular, there have been many cases where social workers have been attacked and killed by psychiatric patients. Philip Ellison was one such victim. Mr Ellison was repeatedly stabbed, twice in the heart, and killed when he visited the home of 52-year-old Robert Searle, who suffered from a severe depressive illness.
Other cases include Jenny Morrison, killed from over 100 stab wounds inflicted by a mental health patient who believed he was the ‘son of god’, and Gareth Dafydd, stabbed twice in the chest by voluntary mental health home patient Derek Wagg.
All of the above cases occurred when the social workers were working alone.
Other social workers have even been attacked by abusive parents and children during home visits.
Sadly, however, social work receives little to no sympathy from the press. Cases like these above have experienced little coverage, whilst the press have been quick to capitalise on issues such as the Baby P case – giving social workers somewhat of a bad name when in fact the majority of social workers are undeniably brave, courageous people who put themselves in the face of danger in pursuit of helping other people.
Now, at this point you may be wondering why an IT-related blog is covering the hazards of social work – but hear me out.
Incidents like these have been occurring for years, with nobody sufficiently addressing the issue and putting procedures in place to prevent these incidents occurring again.
Until now.
We have recently developed launched Staff Guardian which is designed to help public and third sector organisations to protect their staff and minimise the risk of attacks and violence being inflicted on them by clients.
Staff Guardian is a web based service, which allows managers and supervisors to monitor the status and location of every employee – when they arrive for home visits, and when they leave safely, without incident.
It truly is a safety net for those vulnerable employees who often work alone in dangerous environments.
If you want to hear more about how our new web service can help your organisation to develop a safer environment for your employees, please get in touch on 0844 811 2380, email contact@staffguardian.com or visitwww.StaffGuardian.com.