Print |
E-mail to a friend
NEWS
Social work officials: More help is needed
HUNTINGTON -- Legislators must listen to social workers' needs and take action to ensure their safety in the field, Sen. Evan Jenkins, D-Cabell said Monday.
Much talk in the last few days has centered on what could have been done to prevent the death of social worker Brenda Lee Yeager, who went missing after going to the Mount Union area of Cabell County on Wednesday.
Jenkins said the loss of Yeager is a "tragic reminder" of social work's dangers.
"We do need to sit down with people who do this work and listen carefully to them because I suspect they will have some voices that may not have been listened to carefully enough in the past," Jenkins said.
Experts and a family member agree that much more needs to be done to protect social workers, including better training, more use of technology and background checks on clients.
Police reported that Yeager, of Hamlin, was making a scheduled home visit to the parents of an infant at 4293 Mount Union Road on Wednesday. Troopers and deputies from the Cabell County Sheriff's Office arrived at the residence on Friday to find a car and a body believed to be Yeager's on fire.
West Virginia State Police arrested Steven Anthony Foster Jr., 23, Rosemary Forney, 22, and Steven Anthony Foster Sr., 51, in the death of Yeager on Friday. Foster Jr. and Forney are charged with murder, and Foster Sr. is charged with third-degree arson, conspiracy and disposal of a body.
During this year's regular session, the West Virginia Legislature considered, but did not pass, a bill designed to improve social worker safety.
The bill would have increased criminal penalties for those who commit felony or misdemeanor assault and battery on child protective or adult protective service workers in the field.
The Legislature this year did pass a bill providing adult and child protective services workers personal immunity from civil liability, meaning that they cannot be sued for doing their job.
The tougher legislation concerning criminals would have been a start, but even that would not have helped Yeager, said Samuel A. Hickman, executive director of the West Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
Yeager worked for Pro Careers and First Care Services, which the state Department of Health and Human Resources has worked with for a long time, according to DHHR spokesperson John Law.
More protection needs to be provided not only to state employees, but to those providing contracted services, Hickman said.
"We first need to do something like what Kentucky did and make sure our public employees are protected. Then we need to find ways to extend that to logical, volatile areas in the private and non-profit areas," he said.
That means providing technology, improving recruitment and retention, and paying social workers fair wages, Hickman said.
In 2007, the Kentucky legislation passed the "Boni Bill" to provide $6 million to hire additional social workers and improve safety. The bill was named for social service aide Boni Frederick, who was killed in Henderson, Ky., while on a home visit in 2006.
The Kentucky law promised to support security at social workers' offices, provide them with technology to increase safety, and give employees 24-hour access to criminal records.
Hickman said the technology -- things like global positioning and communications systems -- exists.
"It's just a matter of getting it to people," he said.
Law said the state has contracts with numerous agencies to provide different services, including services such as home visits.
The agreement between the state and the agency Yeager worked for states nothing specific to safety, Law said. He said that's true of most contracted agencies.
"When we think that there may be a danger, we work with the local law enforcement or the State Police to get help in taking people there," Law said.
However, visits like Yeager's are not generally hostile, Law said, as she worked in the Birth to Three program.
Often mothers are given advice as part of this program, like tips on how to quit smoking or other child care guidance, Law said.
"In these instances, you normally wouldn't send two social workers anyway because they're not adversarial," he said.
Law said the department will continue to look at ways to improve. He said safety seminars are conducted, but probably not often enough. He thinks the last such seminar took place about three years ago.
Jenkins said legislators should listen very carefully to ideas about how to better protect social workers.
"Our challenge will be to put those good ideas into action," he said.
Jamie Jones, Yeager's son-in-law, said mandatory background checks on clients could help protect social workers in the future. Potentially dangerous clients could be required to come to the office, instead of having a home visit, he said.
He said radio communication between social workers and their offices also would be beneficial.
"If that had been in place, perhaps we'd have known exactly where to go," Jones said of when Yeager was first noticed missing.
Federal legislation also is being pursued to increase social workers' safety, according to Matt Zenner, whose 26-year-old wife Teri was murdered in 2004 during a routine home visit in Kansas.
Zenner has been working to push the Teri Zenner Social Worker Safety Act in Congress. The act would provide funding nationwide for self-defense training and GPS technology, like a phone with a panic button. He is also pushing for rules to require social workers to report to their offices when they arrive at a residence and indicate how long they plan to be there.
Zenner also is working on a Kansas bill this year to make an attack on a social worker a felony crime.
While Zenner continues to make progress, he hopes his efforts will extend to other states before they lose social workers to murder. He said police in Kansas have stepped up their protection efforts.
"Around here when a social worker called the police department and asked for help to go to a client's house, it was way down the totem pole. Now it's one of the top five things they treat as an emergency situation," he said.
Now, he said, social workers need to be given resources to help protect themselves.
"I know you can't protect everybody, but the way I look at it is social workers are like police officers and police officers are sent out with guns, Tasers, nightsticks, bulletproof vests, mace, backup officers. When social workers go out, they're given a clipboard, pen and if you're lucky, a cell phone."
Trust Fund
"The Brenda Yeager Fund" has been established at City National Bank to help the family of Yeager, a social worker who was slain last week. Those wishing can make a donation at any bank branch in the region. Contributions will help with her final bills and family traveling into the region for her funeral.
