Monday, October 04, 2004

Job Protection Sought for Social Workers
AP story at Yahoo on Matt Zenner, whose wife, a Kansas social worker, was killed in August. Zenner is now "...fighting for more protection for social workers. He wants them equipped with pagers that can call 911 and global-positioning satellite locator devices. He wants to make sure caseworkers have clients' criminal records. And he wants hospitals to make more room for mental patients. ... Professor Virginia Yribia, director of field education for the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work, said many mental health centers around the country would probably be willing to make such changes, but could not afford to. ... A 1999 University of Michigan study of 1,600 social workers found 3 percent had been assaulted by a client and 23 percent had been threatened with assault. One in four social workers said they had a colleague who was assaulted by a client."