Georgia’s social workers can be summoned to some pretty intense situations at any time of the day or night — and sometimes it’s not always a safe visit.
To help Georgia’s social workers feel more safe, more than 100 case managers received panic button key fobs as part of a pilot program.
“I really feel like it makes it safer,” Carroll County case manager Brittney Berry said. “We’re going out late at night, all times of the morning, driving down these dark roads, and you don’t always know what you’re getting into.”
The 167 Division of Family and Children Services caseworkers in the 12-county region that spans from Heard County to Butts County received the panic buttons at the beginning of the month. Marva Reed, special operations director for DFCS, said as of Dec. 17 the button had been used a handful of times. She declined to go into details about the incidents.
Berry said during her two years as a case manager, she has been in a few situations where she likely would have used the panic button because she didn’t feel safe.
Once, she said, she had been called to a home where a father was suspected of abusing his children. When she arrived and spoke with the mother, the father paced around the house before going to her car and walking in circles around it. She felt intimidated.
Eventually she was able to leave the home, pull around the corner and confer with her supervisor. They decided to call law enforcement.
“The thing about the panic button is it’s discreet,” she said. “If I feel like I need to call the police and I pull out the phone to call 911, I have to give details of where I am and what’s going on — or someone can knock it out of my hand. With the button, I can just put my hand in my pocket, push the button and help is on the way.”
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When pressed, the button sends a signal to an app on the case manager’s cellphone. Before going into the field, caseworkers enter the address of the home they are about to visit in the app, as well as their information and description. A button push notifies the caseworker’s supervisors and the DFCS call center, and an operator contacts the police.
The Georgia Institute of Technology adapted existing panic button technology to make sure the buttons work reliably across the state.
It cost the department about $800,000 to develop the buttons. If the pilot is successful, DFCS officials have not yet determined how much it would cost to make the program statewide, a division spokesman said.
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Reed said though the case managers have panic buttons, she wants them to be fully prepared before arriving at the home.
“We really encourage folks to use whatever they can in terms of verbal skills and preparing in advance,” she said. “If there is a concern there’s a volatile parent, make a decision before they go out to decide if they need to take law enforcement.”
But if something comes up, she said, they have the buttons.
Berry said she has not yet used her panic button. But just knowing she has it has made it easier for her to focus on doing her job.
“I’m definitely not feeling as anxious or nervous going into some of these situations,” she said.
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