The View page displays a submission's general information and data. Watch video
Submission information
Submission Number: 136
Submission ID: 965
Submission UUID: 0384b8d5-6b7d-4e98-b908-cef5d1aa995c
Submission URI: /2025/abstracts
Created: Fri, 05/09/2025 - 12:58
Completed: Fri, 05/09/2025 - 13:00
Changed: Tue, 07/29/2025 - 07:42
Remote IP address: 102.64.37.208
Submitted by: Luce.Pretorius@nwu.ac.za
Language: English
Is draft: No
Current page: Complete
Webform: Abstract
Presenters
Dr.
Pretorius
Luce
North-west university, south africa
Dr Lucé Pretorius is a senior lecturer in Social Work at North-West University (South Africa), where she leads research on client violence, practitioner wellbeing, and professional safety. Her work integrates policy, practice, and pedagogy with a focus on social justice and trauma-informed care. As founder of the Wellness Wardens initiative, she advocates for systemic change to protect social service professionals. Lucé supervises postgraduate students, contributes to curriculum development, and actively engages in national dialogues on social work education and reform. Her research is driven by a commitment to advancing ethical, resilient, and socially responsive practice.
No
Abstract
Teaching safety: Rethinking client violence in social work education
THEME 4: Social Work Education, Transdisciplinarity and Curriculum Development
SUB 4.2 Strategies on building responsive social work curricula.
Oral Presentation
Client violence against social workers is an escalating issue that impacts the safety, mental health, and retention of practitioners across the globe. Despite the documented prevalence and effects of such violence, there is a concerning gap in how social work education prepares students to recognise and respond to these risks. This study presents a scoping review of 22 international studies on client violence, applying Social Learning Theory (SLT) to understand how violence is socially reinforced and how coping behaviours are modelled within practice environments.
Findings highlight verbal abuse, threats, and physical assaults as common experiences, particularly among young and female practitioners. Consequences include emotional exhaustion, avoidance behaviours, and weakened organisational culture. The review further identifies gaps in training, with most curricula omitting structured violence-prevention content, leaving early-career social workers underprepared.
Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from North-West University’s Health Research Ethics Committee (reference: NWU-HREC-23070-24-A1).
This paper responds to Theme 4, Subtheme 4.2, by offering a framework for building responsive curricula that embed trauma-informed approaches, conflict de-escalation, and SLT-informed safety training. It emphasises the need for curriculum transformation that moves beyond theoretical knowledge, enabling students to develop realistic, context-sensitive competencies for high-risk practice settings.
As an oral presentation, this paper will detail key risk trends, theory-practice connections, and concrete recommendations for curriculum innovation. It contributes to current debates on safety, sustainability, and workforce resilience, encouraging reflection on how we prepare future social workers for nontraditional yet unavoidable challenges in the field.
Findings highlight verbal abuse, threats, and physical assaults as common experiences, particularly among young and female practitioners. Consequences include emotional exhaustion, avoidance behaviours, and weakened organisational culture. The review further identifies gaps in training, with most curricula omitting structured violence-prevention content, leaving early-career social workers underprepared.
Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from North-West University’s Health Research Ethics Committee (reference: NWU-HREC-23070-24-A1).
This paper responds to Theme 4, Subtheme 4.2, by offering a framework for building responsive curricula that embed trauma-informed approaches, conflict de-escalation, and SLT-informed safety training. It emphasises the need for curriculum transformation that moves beyond theoretical knowledge, enabling students to develop realistic, context-sensitive competencies for high-risk practice settings.
As an oral presentation, this paper will detail key risk trends, theory-practice connections, and concrete recommendations for curriculum innovation. It contributes to current debates on safety, sustainability, and workforce resilience, encouraging reflection on how we prepare future social workers for nontraditional yet unavoidable challenges in the field.
Reviewer ONE Feedback
Dr
Martha
van Straaten
Yes
Empirical Research
Accepted
Reviewer TWO Feedback
Dr
Fikile
Xaba
Yes
Empirical Research
Accepted