Stab victim social worker hits out at lack of employer support

The County Durham social worker who almost died when she was stabbed by a mental health patient has broken her silence on the lack of support for social workers.

Speaking in the wake of receiving a payout after arguing that the health trusts had been negligent and exposed her to danger, Claire Selwood is calling for more to be done to protect people in her line of work.

Claire, who was working for Durham County Council at the time and has been left with physical and mental difficulties, including post traumatic stress disorder, said: “I really feel the public should know more about how dangerous the job is.

“There just isn’t the support.

“You’re treated like cannon fodder – you’re facing verbal assaults and physical threats and there’s no back-up from the local authority.

“What happened to me is the extreme I know, but there are still a lot of social workers as a result of doing their daily jobs, confronted with mental health issues, who understandably find it difficult to deal with their job.”

“Social workers are getting back to their own kids at 7pm or 8pm completely exhausted and there’s no support for them.”

Ms Selwood said many social workers were suffering their own mental health problems as a result of the trauma they faced.

She added: “The usual result is they end up going off on sick leave, and then moving jobs. This means that good workers are not retained by the authority.

“However, it also means that the authority drain the last hours of life out of their workers, and do absolutely nothing to counteract the effect on them and their families of doing this dangerous job.”

She said by speaking out she hoped for closure.