Social Work During COVID-19

Timo Harrikari, PhD, is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Lapland and Research Professor in Child Welfare at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL, Finland. Joseph Mooney, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Social Work at University College Dublin, Ireland, and a former social work practitioner. Malathi Adusumalli¸ PhD, is a Professor at the faculty of University of Delhi with over two decades of teaching experience and over seven years of working actively with grassroots organisations in the field of social action, disaster management, and development. She has published her work in national and international journals and has three books to her credit. She has successfully guided M.Phil. and Ph.D. research scholars. She is a firm believer in anti-oppressive social work practice. Paula McFadden, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Ulster University and teaches at undergraduate, postgraduate, master's, and PhD levels. Paula’s main research interests are centred on workforce wellbeing, resilience, and burnout. Paula has conducted several UK-wide research studies, examining burnout in social workers, workforce ageing in social work, and more recently, wellbeing and coping during COVID-19, for health and social care professions, including social workers. Tuomas Leppiaho, B.Soc.Sc., is a research assistant and a master's student in political sciences at the University of Lapland.

1.Introduction: Social Work through a Pandemic: Living with Complexity, Mobilising Adaptive Capacity, and Promoting Social Resilience? Section One - Policies and Governance Framing Social Work Practice. 2.Social Workers’ Response to COVID-19 in Slovenia: The Interconnectedness of Macro, Mezzo, and Micro Levels of Practice. 3.COVID-19 Social Work in the Expanding Neoliberal Welfare States. 4.Development of Digital Social Work in the Early Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovenia and Finland. Section Two – Voices from the Field: Facing Challenges and Creating Solutions. 5.UK Social Worker Burnout and Coping during the First Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 6.Social Work during Triple Lockdown: A Restatement of Discourses in Estonia? 7.Teams Interrupted: Social Work Teams as Communities of Practice and Coping during COVID-19. 8.Social Work during Crises: Good Practices and Bottlenecks According to Social Workers in Flanders, Belgium. Section Three – Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacities at the Client Interface. 9.Social Workers' Context of Practice during COVID-19 in Iran. 10.Experiences of Social Service Officers working at Safe Home during COVID-19 in Bangladesh. 11.Social Vulnerability of Older Adults and COVID-19: Findings from Surveys of Professionals Providing Care in Japan. 12.Social Work and Lost Contacts with Clients during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Shared Trauma from Three Different Civil Society Organisations. Section Four – Restarting the Dynamics, Relationships, and Connectivity in Social Work. 13.‘And I Say, "Yes" Because I Want to Help’—Social Workers Reflections on Practice in Ireland during COVID-19. 14.Transformative Disruption?—Reflections on Care in Social Work under a COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown. 15.A Shift in Social Interaction in Social Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 16.COVID-19 as a Game Changer for the Digitalisation of Social Work. Section Five - Conclusion. 17.Social Work through Pandemic: Conclusions, Lessons Learned, and Future Orientations.