Yet the hazards of other, ostensibly safe jobs, like social work, often go ignored. Until someone gets killed, that is.
In October 2006, Kentucky social worker Boni Frederick, 67, died after being stabbed and beaten while taking a 10-month-old boy -- in state custody because of neglect -- to visit his mother and her boyfriend. Both have since pleaded not guilty to murder charges. In Kansas, 26-year-old social worker Teri Zenner was killed in August 2004 during a home visit to a teenage Johnson County client who was diagnosed with mental illness and has been charged with the killing.
In response to the grisly slayings, a few states -- Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky -- are churning out initiatives to improve social worker safety. One component of those initiatives is GPS-enabled cell phones, which allow supervisors to view field worker movements. Some phones give front-line social workers the option to hit a panic button to call for help.
An added bonus: The phones offer an audio-recording option to replace tedious note-taking, and enable social workers to photograph clients and their environments. The phones' GIS application can also give directions to offsite destinations.
Before debuting in social workers' cell phones, GPS tracking technology has been used by law enforcement and in the corporate world to monitor workers. The standard cell phones the social workers use contain a GPS device that triangulates with low-lying satellites.
Safe and Sound
Though killings aren't common, a surprising number of social workers indicate they experience some form of violence in their daily work environment.
Out of a nationwide sampling of 1,129 social workers, 58 percent reported incidents of violence in the workplace -- of that 58 percent, 50 percent reported threats; 25 percent reported property damage; and 24 percent reported physical attacks, according to a 1993 survey conducted by Christina Newhill, associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh.
In a 2006 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) study of 10,000 social workers, 44 percent reported facing safety issues on the job.
GPS-enabled cell phones may offer social workers extra protection in the difficult environments they face. Verizon presented the idea of deploying the phones to the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) after working with the MDHS on a post-Katrina mobile communications operation, said Bud Douglas, chief systems information officer at the MDHS.
After piloting 50 of the GPS-equipped cell phones during a two-month period beginning in October 2006, Mississippi unveiled a statewide program in March. The state deployed 400 phones, in addition to the 50 pilot phones, at an estimated $450,000 annual cost. Though Verizon provided the phones for free, the state pays a month-to-month contract for minutes and the accompanying Web-based application.
"The big selling point to the caseworkers," Douglas said, "is that we give them a panic button that says, 'If you push this button, we know you're in trouble, and we know where you are.'"
To call 911, social workers hold down a button, which prompts an E911 operator to dispatch local authorities to the location, Douglas said. The MDHS has not yet tested how long it takes for reinforcements to arrive on scene following the signal for help.
The Verizon Field Force Manager, a Web portal connected to the phones, enables office staff to view and trace a map of field worker movements, and continually tracks personnel when the phones are on. The portal can also be programmed to issue alerts generated by certain field worker activities.
This application is especially important to let supervisors know where workers are, and how long they've been there, said Angela Lacy, assistant director for child welfare in the Jefferson County, Ala., Department of Human Resources (DHR).
"If a worker is at a home where there is documented domestic violence, and the supervisor sees by her computer that the worker has been there for more than two hours," Lacy said, "the supervisor can call and check on the worker and alert the authorities."
Helping Social Workers
Say a social worker visits five houses in one shift, the worker can dial the addresses into the phone, and a GIS application calculates the best route. Social workers can record audio observations in lieu of taking notes, and a built-in camera can snap digital pictures of notable marks and bruises on bodies or of desperate living conditions -- solid evidence if ever needed in court. Back at the office, the digital files can be uploaded on computers and organized under a case number.
"We wanted to give our direct-care workers the most efficient tools we could possibly give them because of their caseloads," said Col. Don Taylor, executive director of the MDHS.
In the last two years, social workers have reported an increase in caseloads, client problems and paperwork; all the while job safety has suffered a decline, according to the NASW survey.
The added barriers can fatigue social workers, leaving them less attentive to red flags, said Newhill, author of Client Violence in Social Work Practice. Although Newhill lauds the new phones for the safety mechanism they offer, she worries agencies will pile on yet more cases to growing workloads if the cell phones allow social workers to complete tasks more quickly.
But governments can't afford to shun the technology because social workers visit unsafe environments where drugs, alcohol or weapons may be present, said Page Walley, commissioner of the Alabama DHR. Walley learned of the cell phones from Douglas in neighboring Mississippi and made a case to use the devices following Frederick's death.
"It's safety, communication and quick ability to transmit information to and from the home base to the social worker in the field," he said.
A mid-January pilot with Verizon was spawned in Jefferson County (Alabama's largest urban county) with 15 GPS-enabled cell phones. Lacy said the pilot didn't incorporate the panic buttons, but did use the GPS tracking technology.
Although the Alabama DHR received proposals from an April RFP to equip all Jefferson County social workers with the technology, state laws may force the Alabama DHR to choose a different state-preferred provider, which would mean a second pilot. But Walley said he's hoping for a countywide, and even a statewide, deployment of the phones, suggesting an announcement should come early summer.
In Kentucky, the state Legislature, prompted by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, passed the Boni Frederick Bill in late March -- a $6 million appropriation that will hire more state social workers, enhance safety measures and could include radios with panic buttons, according to local news reports.
Gradually states are implementing cell phones and other safety measures, such as allowing social workers access to criminal justice records or simplifying violence-reporting requirements. But Newhill cautioned against using the phones as a Band-Aid for the larger issue at hand: the lack of appropriate social worker training.
"I think what's important to communicate is the cell phones and GPS devices are great," she said, "but you still need to take precautions; you still need to have training. That will help the devices work best for you.
"But I think it's a great step -- a step in the right direction," said Newhill, who was a practitioner for eight years in California at a time when even mobile phones weren't an option. Unfortunately, she said, it takes a high-profile murder to give governments the wherewithal to adopt safety measures.
"Agency by agency, state by state, people are doing things," Newhill said. "But the reality is that action isn't taken until a social worker is killed. And that's a terrible thing to see, but it's true -- often that's the only thing that really mobilizes people."
