i am anticipating the articles about social workers killed by mentally ill people.

It already happens and it will only get worse.

A friend of mine works in a regular out-patient hospital. Nothing special, and certainly not a mental health facility. A couple weeks ago, a mentally ill teenager was dropped off and abandoned there by his family. While they were trying to arrange a transfer to the proper hospital, the kid went AWOL and started choking out security guards, one of which shot him in a panic. Now the hospital is getting sued because their guards weren't well enough trained to deal with these sort of situations.

Bottom line: it takes an enormous amount of training, experience, patience and manpower to deal with mentally deranged people. Good luck social workers, you're gonna need it.