Protect Social Workers with Discrete Safety Button
The Safety Button with the WorkerSafety Pro app, can send a discrete emergency signal to supervisors that immediate assistance is needed.
Social workers help people every day, but often, it comes at the risk of putting themselves in dangerous situations. Scenarios that include child welfare, domestic disputes, mental health centers and hospitals are places where social workers are often needed. Each scenario poses its own personal safety risk for social workers including verbal and physical confrontations. Yet, many individuals and their respective employers lack the proper training or equipment to get help when they need it most. The Safety Button and the WorkerSafety Pro app from Becklar Workforce Safety can provide the tools social workers need to get immediate help during dangerous work-related situations.
Risks for Social Workers
Social workers who make home visits are statistically more at risk for potential harm than those who don’t. When out in the field, here are a few of the common risk factors that social workers face:
Emotional and unstable clients: It’s common for social workers to enter a situation and interact with others at their lowest points. High stress and emotion, along with drug abuse and mental illness can lead clients to behave erratically and dangerously.
Hazardous or Dangerous areas: Many of the places that social workers visit are in low-income or high-crime areas where additional hazards such as mold, loose floorboards, nails, or blocked entrances and exits can pose additional risks for social workers.
Lack of training and equipment: Social workers often lack the proper training and equipment, such as GPS tracking devices and panic buttons to get them help when a dangerous incident occurs.
In a study discussing client violence pertaining to social workers, there were over 1,100 social workers who were polled for the study. Of those, 58% said they directly experienced an incident of violence while 63% said they knew of a colleague that had experienced violence from a client.
It’s evident that social workers need better protection. Here’s how the Safety Button and the WorkerSafety Pro app can better protect social workers out in the field.
In a study discussing client violence pertaining to social workers, there were over 1,100 social workers who were polled for the study. Of those, 58% said they directly experienced an incident of violence while 63% said they knew of a colleague that had experienced violence from a client.
It’s evident that social workers need better protection. Here’s how the Safety Button and the WorkerSafety Pro app can better protect social workers out in the field.
58% said they directly experienced an incident of violence
The WorkerSafety Pro
Safety Button from Becklar
When a social worker encounters a dangerous incident, they may not be able to call for help.
The Safety Button, in conjunction with the WorkerSafety Pro app, can send a discrete emergency alarm signal to alert supervisor contacts that immediate assistance is needed. While the button can be used as a discrete safety signaling measure, the WorkerSafety Pro app also enhances social worker safety with scheduled check-ins and panic sirens to alert those around them if required.
Use Cases
There are many scenarios where the Safety Button and Workersafety Pro can help a social worker receive emergency help. There are many cases involving a social worker arriving to the home of an emotional or mentally unstable individual who threatens the wellbeing of the worker. Reaching for the phone to call 911 could potentially exacerbate these situations. The Safety Button can be put in silent mode to not make any noise or tone when pressed. Once pressed, Becklar’s AI-powered Engage platform will call the user. If the call is not answered, this will begin the emergency protocols set up by the organization.
The emergency protocols are customizable. They can be set up to alert a supervisor, emergency contact, or 24/7 event monitoring services from Becklar’s premier monitoring service provider, AvantGuard. With professional monitoring from AvantGuard, emergency services can be dispatched by an operator to the exact location of the user using advanced GPS location technology.
Home visits require the social worker to travel. The WorkerSafety Pro app and Safety Button can serve as a beacon for a social worker in the event of a car accident on the job. In the event of an accident, the worker can press the safety button and quickly receive help via the emergency protocols and receive emergency dispatch help to their location. Even if the worker is unconscious, the WorkerSafety Pro app can detect when a worker hasn’t moved for a period of time (worker down detection) and can automatically begin emergency protocols without intervention. This adds a secondary layer of protection for traveling social workers.
It’s also not uncommon for a worker to accidentally press their button and trigger a false alarm. This happens getting in and out of the car, or accidentally pressing the button when grabbing their keys from their pocket or bag. False alarms can also occur if the company or organization has required check-ins set up on the WorkerSafety Pro app and a worker misses a check-in. The Becklar Engage platform reduces these common false signals by utilizing its AI voice assistant to automatically call the user to confirm or disregard the alarm signal.
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A Safety Solution That Works for Social Workers
The Becklar Safety Button and WorkerSafety Pro are trusted by a large state government to protect its social workers from workplace hazards and dangers. Equipped with the Safety Button and WorkerSafety Pro app, social workers never have to walk alone into a potentially dangerous situation.
Contact us to schedule a demo to learn how our solutions can help better protect your workers in dangerous environments.