Ohio Woman Dies Days After Assault by Client
Adoption supervisor Tashia Burch-York died at her home a week after being assaulted by a teenage client, according to this article from WFMJ.com in Cleveland, OH.
Burch-York left work on Feb. 17 after being assaulted by the youth at a Cuyahoga County office building. Authorities are now investigating whether that attack led to her death. Her husband discovered her body.
The WFMJ.com article identifies Burch-York as a social worker. She was awarded an LSW in July of 1993 but it expired two years later and was not renewed, according to the Counselor, Social Worker & Marriage and Family Therapist Board in Columbus.
Burch-York had a bachelor’s degree that was likely in social work, an official at the board said. However, that cannot be confirmed at this time.
There have been several reports of social workers killed or injured at work in recent months. The National Association of Social Workers’ Center for Workforce Studies and the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany did a survey that found that four out of 10 social workers face personal safety issues on the job. To learn more about that study, click here.
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Very sad that workers have to fear being assaulted on the job.
Right now the controversy over the female journalist who was assaulted and the criticism for putting herself in harm’s way for her career makes me wonder if the general consensus is that we are working in risky areas so we should expect the possibility of harm…it is a job hazard and our own fault for being there.
Social workers should be very alert to hostile clients and perhaps take self defense courses to protect themselves.
As we have learned no workplace is totally safe.