ATLANTA – To equip social workers for dangerous confrontations, the state is giving them all judo training, “verbal judo” that is.
The training has been used for years by police agencies since it was developed by a one-time English professor who became a policeman. The techniques are designed to calm tense situations that threaten to turn into violent challenges of authority.
Social workers in the Division of Family and Children’s Services often make evening home visits in high-crime neighborhoods, acting on anonymous tips. And the parents they meet with typically expect to be blamed with something that will result in the social worker taking their children away.
The circumstances mean that caseworkers and parents have reason to be nervous, experts say.
“Many times we’re dealing with their personal lives and what happens behind closed doors,” said Lawrence Nelson, DFCS’ director of education.
The agency says they don’t recall any employees being harmed or any arrests for personal threats, but feeling unsafe is a top reason many caseworkers cite when they quit. Defusing that unease could help reduce the agency’s 35 percent annual employee turnover.
“This training is part of our continuing effort to help keep staff members safe as they visit families in their homes, many times at night and alone,” said DFCS Director Bobby Cagle.
About 2,000 child-welfare workers finished the training this month. By yearend, all 7,000 employees will be trained.
In February, they’ll get a device with a “panic button” they can press to automatically dispatch police to their location.
The training comes from the Verbal Judo Institute of Auburn, N.Y., which normally offers it to law-enforcement agencies and prisons. Among its tips is not telling an agitated person to calm down, but rather to restate their concerns to demonstrate they are being heard.
“What we wouldn’t want to do is get into a situation where we’re trying to prove we’re right and you’re wrong,” said Betsy Lerner, DFCS’s curriculum writer.
Newly hired social workers, usually recent college graduates, undergo three months of routine training in classrooms and field observation before they are certified to handle cases on their own. Communication skills are included in the initial training, but agency officials are realizing it may need greater emphasis.
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