Social care workers ‘victims of violence’

JUST four social care workers out of 85 surveyed for a new study did not experienced work-based violence in the past year.

And a lack of up-to-date training is leaving social care workers prone to work-based violence, the study has revealed.

Less than half of social care workers questioned said they had received up-to-date training to prepare them for potential incidents. The study was carried out by Phil Keogh, lecturer in Social and Educational Studies at the School of Social Sciences at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

The study found that there was a strong link between training undertaken to manage work-based violence and the levels of violence experienced by those questioned for the survey.

There was little evidence however, that age or gender had any influence on the likelihood of experiencing work-based violence.

The survey interviewed 85 social care practitioners currently undertaking a social care in-service education and training course in a higher education college in Dublin. Those questioned were aged between 21 and 54 and more than two-thirds were women.

Just over 87% work in residential care settings and 95.3% had experienced workplace violence.

Almost 17% of those questioned had to take time off work as a result of a violent incident, suffering from pain and discomfort (7.7%), psychological trauma (23.1%) or both physical and psychological problems (69.2%).

Training in dealing with work-based violence, known as Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) training, had never been undertaken by almost 25% of participants, while a slightly higher number had received training in the past 12 months.

TCI training must be undertaken within a six-month period for it to be deemed up-to-date and effective, but only 46.6% of respondents had received such training in that timeframe.

Alarmingly, the shortage of up-to-date training clashed with the fact that those interviewed for the study had worked an average of 7.15 years in the sector.

The study defined work-based violence as: verbal abuse, the threat of assault, physical assault or assault with a weapon.

The study concludes: “Training in managing work-based violence is essential. There is an urgent issue around training which is at the heart of these findings and must be addressed.”

An HSE spokesperson said: “Care teams in residential settings receive Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training on a continual basis including an initial training period and refresher sessions.