A new survey by the province’s largest public sector union shows social workers in the province feel stressed and overworked.

This is National Social Work Month and NAPE conducted an online survey to determine the level of job satisfaction among their members.

73 per cent of social workers who responded to the online survey say their workloads have increased “a lot” over the last five years, while 71 per cent said they find their jobs either extremely or very stressful.

67 per cent of those who responded have experienced or witnessed violence in the job in the last year, and 55 per cent said they were concerned for their safety.

Many conduct their site or home visits alone.

NAPE President Jerry Earle says the results are concerning.

The majority of social workers are women, and sending workers into what can be very volatile situations alone is extremely worrisome.

Results as published by NAPE:

• 73% said that their workloads have increased by ‘a lot’ in the past five years.
• 71% said they find their jobs extremely (32%) or very stressful (39%)
• 77% said they do site or home visits alone
• 66% disagreed that their jobs allowed them to have good work/life balance
• 67% experienced or witnessed violence in the job in the past year alone (2/3 of those were the victims of that violence)
• 55% said they were concerned about their safety at work
• 79% said that their concerns were not being heard or addressed by their employer
• 66% reported their work environment as being toxic
• 79% said that the overall situation for social workers is getting much worse (34%) or getting worse (45%) in recent years