Safety for social workers and case managers.
A social worker walks into homes on the hardest day of someone else's life: a removal, a welfare check, a family in crisis. The emotional stakes are high, the setting is uncontrolled, and the nearest colleague is usually a suburb away.
What social workers and case managers are actually up against
Client and family aggression during home visits and difficult conversations, often in homes the worker has never entered before, and disproportionately after hours when the crisis work happens.
- A home visit that turns hostile when a difficult decision is delivered, with the worker between the client and the door
- A welfare check on an unknown household where nobody knows what is on the other side of the knock
- An after-hours callout where the office support structure has gone home
In the FY26 monitoring data, community-sector activations between 9pm and midnight were confirmed emergencies one time in six - the highest-stakes window of the week for community work. See the data ›
What we'd recommend
Match the tool to the risk. Most teams layer a monitored app with a wearable trigger so help arrives whether the worker presses, gestures, falls, or goes quiet.
Phoenix
A silent card on a lanyard - raise the alarm mid-conversation without reaching for a phone or escalating the room.
See Phoenix ›Duress App
A safety timer per visit that escalates on its own if the visit runs over and the worker goes quiet.
See Duress App ›Falcon
For higher-risk caseloads: a standalone wearable with fall detection that works even if the phone is out of reach.
See Falcon ›