Report says social workers are still living with death threats from the Troubles
SEVERAL social workers in Northern Ireland are still living with death threats from the Troubles, a new study has revealed.
The pioneering Voices of Social Work through the Troubles study, released today, recounts the experiences of staff who put their safety on the line while working to support vulnerable people during the conflict.
Among the incidents faced by respondents were the Shankill and Omagh bombings and violence surrounding the Drumcree parade dispute.
Documenting their experiences of violence, the 102 respondents estimated that they had witnessed around 212 bombings between them, as well as 168 shootings, 508 incidents of sectarian abuse and 1,804 road blocks. They had also witnessed nearly 1,000 bomb scares.
Of the 90 who responded to questions about their own experiences, 78 had encountered bombings, 50 experienced shootings, 38 faced sectarian abuse and 41 came up against road blocks.
However, the report noted that “several respondents stated that their experiences with violence were too numerous to quantify”.
Over a fifth (21%) of respondents indicated that they felt at risk a lot of the time because of working during the Troubles.
The study reveals that “social workers were necessarily and routinely engaged in working with paramilitaries, which also raised a number of anxieties”.
Social workers told how they were directly threatened by paramilitaries because of perceived religious background, followed by an unmarked car for a day and faced service users armed with firearms.
Other incidents involved protecting a child from being injured while caught in crossfire, walking through a suspected booby-trapped front door to discharge child protection duties and directly interfacing with paramilitaries after domestic violence incidents, when paramilitary personnel were also in the home talking to the victim.
The majority of respondents to the study relied on peer support as a coping mechanism, followed by support from family and friends.
Eight interviewees noted the “lack of an organised and coordinated response to the Troubles with the profession and social workers being forced to respond to events as they happened”.
Less than half (47%) of the 102 respondents said that they received support from their employer when they experienced violence during the conflict — with one worker revealing they had been instructed to return to the same house the next day af- ter being threatened by masked paramilitaries.
Just over a fifth (22%) said they had received education and training in helping service users affected by the Troubles, with some feeling their student education was “inadequate” to deal with the conflict.
In fact, the study says that there was a “perception that agencies were ill-equipped to deal with the conflict”.
Almost a fifth (17%) felt that their sense of political, cultural and religious identity were significantly challenged in carrying out their professional role.
The report notes that “social workers sought to make the abnormal normal” when dealing with service users’ needs, with one interviewee stating that the “trauma of living in besieged communities was not spoken about openly in the staff team let alone with the families”.
The impact of the Troubles was directly linked to clients’ mental health needs by respondents. Only one-third (33%) of the 102 respondents had considered ways of putting government strategies for victims and survivors of the conflict into operation.
Many respondents indicated an “absence of strategic think- ing” on supporting people affected by the Troubles.
Several respondents recognised that social workers needed to “actively engage with the transgenerational impact of the Troubles” on the lives of service users today and that there is a need for specialist training on the ongoing impact of the violence.
The report said some social workers also discussed the “trauma with issues they were having to deal with, and concerns regarding their safety caused, and the impact that it had and continues to have on their lives”.
Participants felt social work “could take a proactive stance in addressing legacy issues”.
British Association of Social Workers chief executive Ruth Allen said it was “essential” that social workers “are now offered appropriate support to address the impacts of the traumatic events they encountered in decades past and to thrive in the present”.
She said: “Social workers were also on the front line in response to some of Northern Ireland’s worst atrocities, working tirelessly with others to help and support people.
“To this day, several social workers are living with un-expunged death threats and the majority of social workers felt at risk in their daily work.
“As a result, for some social workers, the trauma of what they experienced in the Troubles is still something they have to deal with.”
The national director of the British Association of Social Workers Northern Ireland, Carolyn Ewart, said social workers had “displayed courage, resilience and an unwavering commitment to the needs of their service users” at a time when it “often felt as if the fabric of society was tearing apart”.