Social work

In reading my most recent NASW News (a publication for social workers who are members of the NASW--National Association of Social Workers) I was struck by their articles on social work safety. In all the jobs that I've had as a social worker (and there have been many) safety is an issue that is addressed during orientation; however, without any real suggestions as to how to keep yourself safe at work. Companies or state agencies acknowledge that you, as a social worker, will be placing yourself into potentially unsafe situations; but discourage, and in some cases forbid, you from carrying anything to protect yourself. No pocket knives, pepper spray, weapons of any sort.

I think people who are unfamiliar with social work probably do not even realize how dangerous certain areas of social work actually are and the type of situations social workers end up in on a daily basis. The norm becomes putting yourself into unsafe situations rather than the exception.

Starting my career as a child protective services worker I would have to say at 22 years old I was very naive about the potential for danger that exists in that sort of job. You are going into homes where people have lost their children and providing services to them. In many instances these families have mental health issues or substance abuse issues that have precipitated why you are there in the first case. Or they live in areas that are crime ridden, gang ridden, drug ridden due to low socio-economic status. What a volatile situation that can be.

In GA I provided outreach services as a clinician. Since I subcontracted and made my own schedule there was no one to know who I was seeing or when. I took it upon myself to let Paul or my mom know the address of where I was going and when I expected to be done. Of course when you text your mom that you'll be done in an hour and to call you if she doesn't here from you and 5 hours go by before you realize hey my mom didn't call and you call her to say what the hell you realize this can be a flawed process. In the 8 months that I worked in GA I was involved in 2 situations that involved guns (one of which I left my female client's bedroom to find the very tiny living room filled with 8 men I didn't know and my female client told them I didn't like black people) and weekly went to an apartment building where I witnessed drug deals and active drug use. Having to pass people on a stairwell who are in the process of a drug deal is a scary situation.

I don't think my social work experiences are any different from any other social workers. I had once read that social work is the most dangerous profession after police and fire and I can see how that is true.

Being pregnant and getting ready to have my own child I am not sure I have it in me to do outreach services anymore. NASW News listed the lives lost of social workers over the past couple decades and the thought of leaving my baby girl and my husband because of the safety of my job...I just can't. That's not to say I don't love being a social worker and helping people. I think I've just progressed to a point in my career where I can be a little more choosy about the jobs I take and the situations I'm willing to put myself in. I have my own child to think about now.



1964 MISSISSIPPI

Michael Schwerner

Schwerner, a social work student, was one of three civil rights workers found shot to death in a dam on Aug. 4, 1964. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney had gone to Mississippi during Freedom Summer to investigate the burning of a black church.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Schwerner, 24, a New York native, went to Mississippi in January 1964 with his wife, Rita, after having been hired as a field worker for the Congress for Racial Equality. On Jan. 15, 1964, Michael and Rita left New York in their VW Beetle for Mississippi. After talking with civil rights leader Bob Moses in Jackson, Schwerner was sent to Meridian to organize the community center and other programs in the largest city in eastern Mississppi. He became the first white civil rights worker to be permanently based outside of the capital of Jackson.

1987 WASHINGTON

Norman W. Fournier was shot by a client whom he went to pick up on an involuntary commitment order on Aug. 4, 1987. A social worker for 25 years, Fournier served as mental health coordinator for Pierce County.

1987 KENTUCKY

Paul T.Grannis

In 1987 Paul Grannis, a social worker in northeastern Kentucky, was shot to death by the father of an adolescent following a removal.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

1988 PENNSYLVANIA

Linda Rosen

In Pittsburgh, Linda Rosen, age 27, a hospital caseworker, was shot and killed by Edith Anderson in a psychiatric emergency waiting room at the St. Francis Medical Center. Anderson was being interviewed to determine if she needed help when she suddenly pulled out a gun. Rosen immediately turned and ran calling for security guards. At that point Anderson began shooting. After killing Rosen, she took three hostages. After negotiation the hostages were released and Anderson was taken into custody.

1988 WEST VIRGINIA

Ladonna Wolford was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two teenagers at a shelter for runaways in July 1988.

1989 CALIFORNIA

Robbyn Panitch

Robbyn Panitch, 36, of Los Angeles County, was stabbed on Feb. 21, 1989, by a deranged client whom she was counseling at a Santa Monica mental health clinic. Robbyn, a psychiatric social worker, was stabbed more than 30 times by the psychotic Air Force veteran at her county Health Department office.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

1991 MARYLAND

Tanja Brown-O'Neil

In June 1991, 29-year-old Tanja Brown-O'Neil, a Baltimore social service worker, was stabbed to death at her workplace by a man who was apparently furious at not receiving his food stamps.

1992 NEW YORK

Florence A. Pike Denise Van Amburg Nancy Wheeler Phyllis Caslin

The four women and their killer died when 50-year-old John T. Miller walked into the Schuyler County offices with a 9mm handgun and shot one after the other, pausing once to tell a woman working in a nearby office that she could leave. Afterward, he calmly told deputies that he had "hurt everyone I came here to hurt." Then he held the gun to his right temple and pulled the trigger.

For 26 years, he had denied paternity of a daughter born to a former girlfriend in his hometown, nearby Montour Falls. Through four arrests and two six-month jail terms for failure to pay child support, and a life apparently spent evading Schuyler County authorities, he refused to pay - and refused to take court-ordered blood tests to determine if he was the father. When $51 was garnisheed from his paycheck on Oct. 5, he told co-workers at the trucking company in a Cleveland suburb where he worked as a driver that he was leaving for New York to "settle the matter."

1993 MICHIGAN

Rebecca Binkowski was stabbed in her car on Feb. 3, 1993, by a tenant at an apartment complex for persons with mental illness, where she worked as a resident manager. A graduate student at Western Michigan University, Binkowski was awarded her master degree in social work posthumously.

1993 MICHIGAN

Barbara Synnestvedt was beaten and strangled by a teenage inmate and sex offender at a juvenile detention center on April 25, 1993. Synnestvedt worked at the W.J. Maxey Training School.

1996 MASSACHUSETTS

Linda Silva was gunned down on Sept. 12, 1996, in a parking lot in Provincetown. No witnesses ever came forward despite the fact that the intown location was busy and, at the time of the shooting, 7:30 p.m., the area was still in daylight.

The 6 1/2-year search for the shooter of the DSS social worker came to an end when 39-year-old construction worker Paul DuBois was arrested in Branson, Mo.

Prior to the shooting, DuBois had been involved in a long bitter custody battle with his ex-wife that began with their split in 1993. After years of fighting in Barnstable Probate Court, DuBois was the party who initially called DSS to make complaints about his ex-wife's parenting of their two children. Linda Silva was the DSS social worker assigned to investigate the case.

1996 SOUTH CAROLINA

Josie Curry Michael Gregory Jimmy Riddle

The three caseworkers were shot to death on Sept. 16,1996, at the North Augusta office of the Aiken County Department of Social Services. Police say David Mark Hill walked into the office armed with a semi-automatic handgun, upset that his children were being put into foster care.

1997 INDIANA

Steve Tielker was shot by a client on probation for child molestation on April 28, 1997. Tielker, a Family and Children's Services supervisor, counseled both victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. The client, whom he was counseling under court order, also fatally shot a probation officer before taking his own life.

1998 CONNECTICUT

Donna Millette-Fridge was stabbed by a client while walking to work at a community mental health outreach program on Sept. 22, 1998. Millette-Fridge, 36, recently had received her master's degree from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work in West Hartford.

1998 MICHIGAN

Lisa Putnam

Child Protective Services worker Lisa Renee Putman was killed during a home visit in May 1998 in Macomb County.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

1999 OHIO

Nancy Fitzgivens

For her entire life, Nancy Fitzgivens dreamed of becoming a social worker. Marriage and three children delayed but did not deter her dream. At age 50, she obtained her degree, concluding a 10-year educational journey. In 1999, she became a social worker at the Franklin County Children Services to do child protection work. On Oct. 16, 2001, she died after she was attacked while making a home visit. Fitzgivens was honored by a scholarship in her memory for a social work student at Ohio State University, by donations given to Children Services for its Holiday Wish Program, by a memory quilt signed by her colleagues and friends, and by various plaques and other tributes.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

1999 WISCONSIN

Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez, a Social Development Commission youth outreach worker, was killed outside an SDC office by a masked gunman.

2004 KANSAS

Teri Zenner

Teri Zenner was stabbed to death while visiting a 17-year-old client, Andrew Ellmaker, at his home. Ellmaker was charged with her death. Zenner's slaying validated her husband's concerns and those of many of the 320,000 licensed social workers nationwide who frequently venture into the homes of clients in hopes of getting lives back on track.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

2005 WASHINGTON

Marty Smith

In 2005, Marty Smith, a Washington state crisis responder for the state mental-health system, was killed while checking on a schizophrenic client whose mother had called to say he wasn't taking his medications.

Instead of consenting to a hospitalization, Larry Clark attacked Smith with his fists and then a carving knife as Clark's mother screamed for help outside.

Smith, 46, died in Clark's dining room. He is the first designated mental-health professional to die on the job in Washington since 1987.

2005 ILLINOIS

Marilyn Bethell

Marilyn Bethell had wanted to be a substance abuse counselor for years. Just as she was getting the chance to live her dream, she disappeared.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Police say they suspect foul play after the bizarre crash involving her car and two armed men, after which it was revealed that Bethell was missing.

Bethell graduated from the College of DuPage with an associate's degree in applied science, specifically addiction counseling.

2006 KENTUCKY

Boni Frederick

On Oct. 16, 2006, Boni Fredrick, a Social Service aide in western Kentucky, was murdered while supervising a home visit with an infant. The killing sent shock waves through the community and the agency.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

2008 MASSACHUSETTS

Diruhi Mattian

Mattian, a psychotherapist from Wilmington, was murdered by her teenage client during a visit to his apartment, according to police.

Police say Diruhi Mattian, 53, was stabbed to death by Thomas Belanger, 18. He then turned the knife on himself and slit his throat, police said.

Mattian was the program director for the Lawrence FLEX program. FLEX provides services to families with children with chronic mental illnesses and requiring intensive therapeutic involvement.