Risk factors in the work of the social worker: summary of a research on external user violence

In Italy, especially in recent years, the phenomena of violence against social workers by external users have assumed worrying dimensions, as in many other countries. Over time, numerous researches have shown that the phenomenon has become a real alarm in the professional community and that the wide spread reached by violence against this category of workers is connected with the levels of precariousness of social policies and the slow but constant weakening of the networks of social services supporting people in difficulty. Starting from these premises and from the more general assumption that at the centre of the professional action of the assistant there is the relationship with the user, a new research study was conducted with the aim of monitoring the phenomena of violence against social workers residing in the Region of Sicily, their incidence and types of consequences. The research, following a memorandum of understanding between the University of Enna 'Kore' and Croas (Regional Council of the Order of Social Workers of Sicily), was conducted by means of an anonymous information questionnaire submitted online to a population of 4736 social workers registered with the Order of Social Workers of Sicily. The data were collected in February and March 2023 and processed in the following month of April. 32.4%, that is, 1542 operators, of whom 941 registered in the A register section (61%) and 601 registered in the B register section (39%) participated by answering the questionnaire in full. Closedended questions were used, which are known to fairly facilitate the interpretation of participants' answers, on the basis of which a comparative analysis can be carried out and, where this was not the case, the data was modified and converted to the form and context necessary to allow for correct interpretation (number, scale, graph). The results showed that approximately 50 per cent of the respondents had experienced at least one incident of physical/verbal violence in the course of their work.