Caseworkers worry about threats from clients.

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6723721.html

LANSING, Mich.— One frustrated client hurled a piece of concrete through the window of a welfare agency. Another threw her car keys at a welfare worker before being escorted away. At one point, a woman on public assistance even took a swing at a worker.

As Michigan struggles with the highest-in-the-nation jobless rate, state workers who deal with unemployment, welfare and other aid programs say they have never been so overwhelmed — or so worried about their safety. Some clients have begun taking their anger out on the very people who are offering help. And caseworkers are seeking extra protection.

“We are seeing it more and more as a dangerous situation,” said Amy Harrison, a caseworker who used to work for the state prison system, where she says she never felt as insecure as she does now.

More than 15 percent of Michigan workers do not have a job. The dismal economy has also caused record demand for food stamps and public health care, forcing impoverished clients to wait hours for help in crowded office buildings. To make matters worse, a troublesome new computer system is also causing delays.


Jan Brown, a Berrien County caseworker in southwest Michigan, says she was opening the door to see a client when a woman ran over, grabbed the door and said, “You ARE going to see me.” The woman finally left and on her way out called the front-desk workers “every name in the book.”

“This isn't happening once. This is happening daily,” said Brown, who monitors welfare recipients who have been instructed to get training or seek work. Her caseload that was once 150 is now 360 and climbing because people cannot find jobs.

Brown has been assaulted by a client, but does not blame people for their frustration.

“We've got a crisis here. It's not the people that are coming into us. It's not their fault. It's no workers — not enough workers — and a computer system that is not working compatibly.”

Harrison, who works in Jackson in south-central Michigan, had to get an order of protection against a client who took at swing at her. She said workers are constantly threatened, and lobby security is not enough.

Salacina says threats to employees are nothing new, but now there are more of them. “It's just we have more clients,” he said.
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