Client Violence Toward Social Workers: The Role of Management in Community Mental Health Programs‪.‬

Client violence toward social workers is not a rare occurrence. In a study of licensed social workers in a western state, Rey (1996) found that violence against social workers occurs across settings. Griffin (1995) reported that social work cases have become more complex (for example, substance abuse and mental illness and homelessness) and that treatment is provided in a societal context fraught with greater violence. Community-based social workers face greater peril than their office-based counterparts because they often provide services in unsafe neighborhoods and have limited to no immediate support available if something should go wrong. Key indicators of potential violence include positive symptoms of schizophrenia, medication noncompliance, active drug or alcohol use, mandated clients, and a history of violence (Shergill & Szmukler, 1998; Weinger, 2001). Even in the midst of writing our final drafts of this article, we sadly read that Nicole Castro, a 23-year-old social worker in Maryland was murdered while serving a mentally ill client during a "routine visit" (O'Neill, 2002). The introductory vignette is an actual account of the first author's experience of a serious threat to her physical safety at the hands of her client. Unfortunately, it is merely one among the many scenarios that social workers face daily in providing services to clients.