A study on the abuse experienced by social workers in Malta in the exercise of their profession

Abstract

Literature explores various forms of abuse experienced by professionals in the course of one’s professional duties (Mayhew & Chappell, 2001). Research has shown that there is especially high prevalence of violence experienced by social service employees (Harris & Leather, 2012; Koritsas, Coles, & Boyle, 2010; McDonald & Sirotich, 2005; Ringstad, 2005). However, a lack of clarity exists regarding the issue of abuse against social work professionals in Malta. This research study was therefore conducted with the aim to examine the prevalence of abuse experienced by social workers in Malta in the exercise of their profession and to understand the bearing that the experienced abuse has had on the practitioners’ wellbeing.

For the purpose of this study, ‘abuse’ was defined as ‘any behaviour in the form of hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, gestures or actions by another person, that affect an employee’s dignity or psychological or physical integrity, often resulting in a harmful work environment for the employee’ (adapted from Chappell & DiMartino, 2006). A mixed methods design was employed in gathering the data for this study, as this enabled the researcher to cross validate the yielded results. There has been a 30% response rate to the questionnaire. Four participants were selected for the in-depth interviews through snowball sampling (Bryman, 2012).

The quantitative data results have demonstrated that abuse from clients throughout the social workers’ career was almost endemic, with nearly all of participants having experienced such abuse at least once. Furthermore, the study indicated that over the past 12 months period, psychological abuse from clients was the most prevalent form of abuse that the social workers reportedly experienced. The study results also confirm Koritsas, Coles and Boyle’s (2010) findings that abuse towards social workers can come not just from clients but also from clients’ significant others, work colleagues, supervisors/managers and allied professionals, and although they are reportedly not as prevalent as abuse from clients is, their impact is significant. In comparison to receiving any other abuse explored in this study, a high number of social workers have reported that experiencing abuse from their superiors has had the most adverse effects by means of diminished feelings of autonomy, safety, happiness, belonging, reduced ability to generally trust in people, increased feelings of distress (such as fear, anger, burnout) and reduced motivation for work. The qualitative results also point towards the social workers’ perception that abuse from superiors is by far worse than abuse from clients (Refer to section 4.3). Therefore, although in this study the prevalence of abuse by superiors is not high (but still significant), its impact is noteworthy and cannot be ignored in a situation in which retention of social workers is a major challenge (Graham, & Nicholas, 2016; Koritsas, Coles, & Boyle, 2010).