It happened two weeks ago. A patient broke into the room of a social worker in the social services department in Givat Zeev, shouted, cursed and threw the contents of the table in all directions. The patient later waited for the social worker outside the office and threatened to harm her, which forced the other members of her office to accompany her to the car to prevent further harm to her
.
"Violence against social workers occurs all the time," says Tami Barshesht, director of the welfare and community department at the Pardes Hanna-Karkur local council and chairman of the local authorities' welfare services organization. Make them the punching bag and take out the nerves and the frustration on them. "
She added: "The frequency of violence may have dropped recently, but there are still many cases where social workers are attacked and threatened. There is a huge shortage of social workers today. We are unable to staff standards because not everyone is willing to work in public welfare services because of the congestion. And the chicken, because whoever works - has a load on him and gets violence or anger - then people leave or do not get into the profession. "
Cases of verbal and physical assaults against social workers have become routine in recent years.
A survey conducted by the Social Workers' Union about a year and a half ago among about 1,600 workers found that 30% of social workers experienced physical violence, 30% experienced threats on their lives or the lives of their families and 23% were attacked more than five times. In addition, the vast majority About 90% experienced verbal violence and 11% experienced online shaming.
It is important to note that the struggle of the social workers bore fruit, and after years a protected system was established for them, which includes security guards in social services bureaus, but they are mainly stationed in the large bureaus. This is being implemented, and cases of physical and verbal violence are still occurring.
"Violence is never justified," says Inbal Hermoni, chairman of the Union of Social Workers and Social Workers, adding: "Employees and patients. Therefore, it is mandatory to reduce the number of patients per worker and renovate the buildings that require improvement."
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us