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'My life is shattered': Social care workers speak out about vicious assaults

Workers say management ignores the impact attacks have on workers.

THE MAJORITY OF social care workers have experienced some form of violence in their workplace.

This is according to a survey of more than 400 workers by Social Care Ireland.

It found 90% of social care workers had experienced workplace violence, with the figure rising to 100% in children’s residential services.

“The potential for violence in the workplace is like living under house arrest, being held hostage by someone you are supposed to be caring for. You bide your time never knowing if you will get out of your shift safely or not,” one respondent said.

Another described the various reasons or triggers for violence:

Fixations on items or people, family access or lack of family contact, not having a voice (autistic) lack of the ability to communicate with others, being told ‘no’, refused access to food or other items, their diagnosis impacting on their behaviour, staff or young people relationships, new staff starting or unfamiliar staff working with the young people, changes in routine, lack of consistency or structure.

Vicious assault

The majority of workers continue to experience abuse, threats and physical assault at work with almost 40% of social care workers reporting experiencing physical assault monthly or more often.

I am currently suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with my life in shatters two years after a vicious assault.

“Physical injury has had a major impact, to the point of partial disability. I sum up one particular incident as having ruined my quality of life, preventing me from continuing activities that I enjoyed. The severity of the type of violence seems to have increased,” one social care worker revealed.

Staff also said they felt some employers are failing to protect pregnant staff in children’s residential centres by not allocating them to alternative duties.

A huge area that needs to be looked at is violence for pregnant staff members. The culture is the pregnant [woman] seeks alternative duties than working directly with risky service users. The management and the area manager do not offer alternative duties or alternative placement. They put the staff at risk. The team carry the burden of keeping the woman safe. The woman eventually has to seek leave via GP as she is not safe. It is an absolute disgrace.

In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, the child and family agency Tusla said it takes the health and safety of pregnant staff members very seriously.

“Where a risk is identified in such an assessment, plans are made to ensure it is managed and where this is not possible, the pregnant staff member is temporarily relocated by agreement to another centre in which the identified risk does not present,” a spokesperson said. “Routinely, pregnancy related risk management plans also include additional safeguarding measures that are put in place to ensure staff members are protected from unforeseen risk as it arises.”

Ignoring effects

More than half of those surveyed perceived violence to be an “acceptable reality” to their employer.

Management choosing to ignore effects of violence on staff. Staff expected to deal with situations and take abuse ‘because it’s our job’…a case of put up or shut up. If you don’t like it, you know where the door is! Notice a serious lack of respect for staff by management especially in the last six months.
I am currently out after a serious assault. The management have not been supportive, telling me I am haemorrhaging funds and they would be dubious of my injury, even though the medical evidence is there to back it all up. Management need to understand the mental, physical and emotional effects such serious injuries can have. No-one is looking for sympathy, just support.

A number of social care workers who were surveyed noted a lack of after support in their workplaces following incidents.

If it’s a particularly violent situation there may not be anyone to cover you and you may need to wait until the situation is resolved to seek medical treatment. Debriefings and supervision may not happen until well after the incident. Also occupational injury leave is not always granted. Some staff have been severely assaulted and been denied this leave resulting in them using personal sick leave for injuries which are work related.

“After being beaten up on shift when some support was present, to going on shift the next day to find you were working with no real back up and the same violent threats,” another worker said.

One worker said they “would feel angry and annoyed, not at the child, but at the situation that I am forced to work in”.

“The impact of workplace violence for both the individual professional and the organisation is significant, and the above findings highlight that workplace violence is no longer ‘risk’ for those employed in social care, but is a reality faced often daily in their workplace,” the authors said.

Tusla welcomed the report, commenting today that it is committed to providing a safe, supportive and positive working environment for all of its staff members.

Through a range of measures including training in the management of workplace aggression and violence, staff supervision, the occupational health service and the employee assistance programme, Tusla takes every step to protect staff from violence and to support employees who have experienced violent and/or threatening behaviour. Under its serious physical assault scheme, Tusla also offers fully paid leave to staff who have suffered a serious physical assault in the workplace to support them through the recovery process.

The agency noted there has been an increase in the level of demand for residential care placements for children and young people, and they sometimes exhibit challenging and violent behaviour.

The sad fact is we are almost immune to it now, the odd slap and punch wouldn’t affect me at all, completely desensitised.

Read: “Social workers have learned to simply ignore the attacks”: In defence of social workers>

Read: A social worker’s perspective: We need to rethink the way we help vulnerable children>

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39 Comments
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    Mute Stephen Todd
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    Sep 7th 2016, 11:44 AM

    There’s no doubt that social carers in this country are seen as glorified baby sitters. The issues dealt with on site can be ridiculous complex and I regularly dealt with some crazy situations. There’s also a massive problem with the private social care settings where profit comes before both staff and the children in their care. Certainly a far from perfect sector

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    Mute Neil
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    Sep 7th 2016, 11:45 AM

    A side effect of the Hug-a-Thug mentality that’s been allowed to creep in over the last two decades. They’ve had years to show that love and understanding will improve the situation over incarceration and punishment. It’s not working out too well. Never been a better time to be a young scrote. Guards are hamstrung, judges are soft and it’s off to the Oberstown holiday camp with you to beat up your social worker and set fire to the roof.

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    Mute Stephen Todd
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    Sep 7th 2016, 11:49 AM

    Kids in residential care are not criminals. It is a small minority’s that display challenging behaviour

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    Mute Methinks
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    Sep 7th 2016, 1:18 PM

    Lot of red thumbs Stephen. People prefer grotesquely oversimplified generalisations. Hang em all crap has mass appeal. Evidence be damned.

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    Mute Stephen Todd
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    Sep 7th 2016, 2:25 PM

    90% kids in residential care are there due to their parents inability to care for them ie. death, addiction or other health issues. This is not the fault of these children. As you say, grossly oversimplified generalisations

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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Sep 7th 2016, 3:05 PM

    The actions of these “children” are solely their own fault.

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    Mute Stephen Todd
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    Sep 7th 2016, 3:13 PM

    Yes but are influenced by external factors no doubt. To use an extreme example, I worked with a young man who’s body was sold by his mother so she could get her fix. No we can argue all day about responsibility of your so called “children” but there is no doubt this would greatly impact you and your behaviour due to physical and psychological damage. What you think?

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    Mute Jimbo Jones
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    Sep 7th 2016, 3:44 PM

    It’s funny that if someone sees a baby or young child with abusive or addicted parents they’ll have all the sympathy in the world. When those babies grow up they’re no longer worthy of it. As if they should just magically turn into functioning members of society when they hit puberty.

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    Mute James Coyne
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    Sep 7th 2016, 9:04 PM

    Wow how misinformed are you? Children in care are not criminals. Children who offend are in oberstown house (less than 1% of children who are in care). Children with a terrible family situation are in residential care. This is through absolutely no fault of their own. But sure let’s go back 20 years to the fine institutions such as letterfrack and punish children for situations far beyond their control. Excuse my sarcasm.

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    Mute Gemma Sophia O'hanlon
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    Jan 8th 2017, 6:44 PM

    @Ronan Sexton: exactly the words of an uneducated, person who is ignorant to what these children have experienced over the course of their lives. A child does not just wake up one day and decide to go beat up a staff member, they have clearly experienced tough lives and perhaps violence themselves and have psychological issues that have not been dealt with. These kids don’t need to be looked at like criminals, instead place the judgement on who actually created the problem, their families who were supposed to look after them and the government who didn’t see what was happening to them in time. I have seen both sides as a child in care and now a social care student. Not all children in care are beating up staff members everyday, some actually take the experience and use it to better their lives, others just need more help to see that they are worth something and that they can have a normal life even if all they have seen is violence and unhealthy environments.

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    Mute Dan Keane
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    Sep 7th 2016, 12:34 PM

    This is very similar in the homeless sector especially in the emergency accommodation side of homelessness.
    Staff are constantly abused verbally and physically and sometimes come to work in fear and management response is often – “it’s part of the job” or “what could you have done differently”. Too much responsibility is taken away from service users and there are no consequences for actions. I certainly empathise with those mentioned in this article.

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    Mute Shane Griffin
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    Sep 7th 2016, 5:17 PM

    Honest Confession: As a child I spent eight years in state care, this eight year coupled with trauma before and during sent my little life into chaos. It was trauma and additional trauma, largely due to an incompetent system that allowed me to slips through many cracks.

    My psychology needs were largely abandoned, considering the level of trauma experienced this was shocking. Things got so bad that a higher level of intervention “High Support” was the only option left. for me (of which H.S has vanished from the system)
    It was in here where I assaulted a staff member, something to this day I regret, I also regretted it the moment it happened and expressed my remorse. It happened in the middle of a freak out, where I didn’t feel in control of my self and was terrible upset and emotional mess.

    Moving on to a more present time, thankful I can say that I am today a social care worker myself. I’ve worked across different areas of social care and also spent time in residential care as a staff member, something that was quiet an unusual experience considering my own time spent in res care as that child.

    My observations of residential care today is quiet frank and blunt, have we learned anything?

    Kids in res care are still today largely those who slipped through the cracks, those who haven’t had that permanency, sufficent care and affection, various – broad ranging traumatic experience and dare I say kids with complex psychological needs that clearly haven’t been met.

    Many many missed opportunities for an earlier intervention, to met the needs of those kids. What does it take to warrant a residential placement, when it works it can be fantastic for those children, could we provide it earlier before foster care as an intense Intervention? which could have many long term benefits.

    Residential care workers are fantastic people, I’ve worked with many, I know many. Greatly under appreciated for the work they do, and yes often expected to “take it” (physical) abuse by young people as part of the work. Maybe when professional start to bring civil actions, they will change things, or God forbid the worst happened. I’ve seen first hand the potential for this, shame

    Final words on this, shame on those who finically benifit from the misfortune of others (Private / For Profit Companies). Also I never condem nor condone the actions of kids in care, there is always a story and I can easily see the “Why’s”. Some people may not like my comment above, but it’s my observation and I suppose somewhat of a biased opinion.

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    Mute Caroline Reid
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    Sep 7th 2016, 8:04 PM

    Thank you for sharing your story and good on you for turning your life around. I fear if anything the system has gotten worse.

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    Mute Dessie Curley
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    Sep 7th 2016, 11:39 AM

    At least they get close to minimum wage to help ease ail the injuries

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    Mute ROS123
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    Sep 7th 2016, 1:45 PM

    Not a judgement just the facts.. Social Care worker (with a qualification)
    30,293 – 31,652 – 33,325 – 34,550 – 35,788 – 37,031 – 38,294 – 39,577 – 40,851 – 42,148 – 43,451 – 44,3061

    is it worth it?

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    Mute Stephen Todd
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    Sep 7th 2016, 2:23 PM

    They’re public sector pay scales I presume. At 12 per hour it can fall between 21-25k gross per annum, in the private sector

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Sep 7th 2016, 2:52 PM

    Yep,there are two sides to every story. Carers matter too not just patients.

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    Mute Caroline Reid
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    Sep 7th 2016, 2:54 PM

    The system is badly broken. Kids are sadly being wrongly placed (despite scw telling management it won’t work), and this leads to problems not only for the young person but the other young people in the house and the staff. Scw are constantly having to put themselves at risk

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    Mute european liberal
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    Sep 7th 2016, 3:13 PM

    People who have committed crime should be in prison not a care home. Also the care homes should employ security staff.

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    Mute John O Connor
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    Sep 7th 2016, 8:18 PM

    Tulsa the biggest corrupted agency in this country

    27
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    Mute Paul Cathy Lynam
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    Sep 8th 2016, 12:09 AM

    I’ve worked in this field in Ireland since the mid nineties. It appears not much has changed over this period. I have had black eyes, bites to my arm spat on punched and then there was the night I didn’t think I’d get out alive. I was threatened by a young person with a large piece of broken wire glass. Fortunately I managed to get away without harm. But it left an indelible mark on me and led to a protracted period of PTSD and depression. You might imagine I would have been angry at the young person who did this but in fact my anger focused on the management who didn’t believe the affect this incident had on me. Although I went for counselling afterwards these sessions were cut by the employer who felt I should not have had access to the counselling service. The major problem.within the system is that all the rights appear to lie with those in care and employees have very little rights when it comes to allegations etc. Also are hands are consistently being tied by regulations that frustrate and the huge amounts of paperwork that we now have to fill out to justify our actions. I understand that there have been many breaches of trust in the past
    But regulation has gotten to the point that it has tied our hands so much it is practically impossible to do our job. The courts also appear to take the attitude of poor child what have they done to you. But don’t seem to understand a 15 yr old out of control young person is very capable of doing serious damage to people and with little regard to the health and well being of staff who believe it or not genuinely care for those in their care.

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    Mute Felecity
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    Sep 8th 2016, 12:04 AM

    It is disgraceful that there is an acceptance that Social Care workers should be subject to this level of violence. I would lay the blame squarely at the door of Tusla and poor management practice. So called ”training’ in management of violence and aggression does not address this problem. When a member of staff is confronted by an out of control resident, all the training in the world will not matter. What is needed is adequate staffing, and proper policies and procedures. Leaving a staff member on site with some violent thug who has assaulted them is a disgrace. Failure to take action (which is often the case) against the perpetrator is sending a dangerous message out to service users that this is acceptable and puts both staff and other service users at risk. With regard to the problems occurring at Obertstown, fair play to them for going on strike. Management were obviously ignoring their concerns and this left them with little alternative. Furthermore, Obertstown should have been staffed by prison officers, who are trained in this area. Many of the young people resident at this facility, will usually have been before the courts many times, have had the benefit of much intervention from social workers and the gardai and usually only end up there as a last resort.

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    Mute €uromancer
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    Sep 7th 2016, 2:28 PM

    Skanger management.

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    Mute Jackie M Keegan
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    Sep 23rd 2016, 1:21 PM

    Social care workers have no protection in these work situation when clients become aggressive

    14
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    Mute Random Flutist
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    Sep 7th 2016, 1:01 PM

    Was this report supposed to coincide with the Aras Attracta report when the boot was on the other foot?

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    Mute Catherine Mill
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    Sep 7th 2016, 5:20 PM

    One truth to be pointed out is the way social workers act as gods and use mental torture tactics on service users- expecting service users not to react.

    I have seen this many times . Fine for educated people who know mental torture when it happens to them but for the rest, of course they see it and feel it as threatening and react.

    Time to change their training big time.

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    Mute Dan Keane
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    Sep 7th 2016, 6:25 PM

    This article is about social care workers not social workers.

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    Mute european liberal
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    Sep 7th 2016, 9:34 PM

    Victim blaming

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    Mute john smyth
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    Sep 7th 2016, 1:00 PM

    Highlights the lack of direct occupational health services in ire inspire if a clear need for them

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    Mute Steve McMahon
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    Sep 7th 2016, 11:55 AM

    All forgotten about once they see their pay cheque

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    Mute John Madden
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    Sep 7th 2016, 12:00 PM

    idiotic comment of the week Steve mcMahon, well done!

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    Mute Steve McMahon
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    Sep 7th 2016, 12:19 PM

    Was being sarcastic gimp

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    Mute John Madden
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    Sep 7th 2016, 12:26 PM

    stay classy Steve.. you da man

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    Mute Steve McMahon
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    Sep 7th 2016, 12:31 PM

    Will do

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Sep 7th 2016, 12:32 PM

    Poor showing all round from Steve McMahon

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    Mute Missyb211
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    Sep 7th 2016, 5:15 PM

    We shall see John Madden

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    Mute Missyb211
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    Sep 7th 2016, 5:13 PM

    Wonder have those scw’s any suggestions for improvements or are they looking fora raise? What are the solutions?

    It’s sad to hear of Autistic children being put in those places with other troubled kids. I know from experience that stressful situations, unfamiliar surrounding , changes to routines et. etc etc. can have a terrible effect on them and will react in a violent way. Are these residential homes, mental homes, correctional facilities or just a place to call home?

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    Mute Caroline Reid
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    Sep 7th 2016, 8:10 PM

    I’m sure they’ve given many suggestions but aren’t being listened too

    23
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