Introduction
Social work is a valuable profession that makes life easier for people who need help. This includes helping to achieve well-being and human recognition and improving the individual’s and society’s quality of life. The life of a social worker is always filled with meaning, which allows him or her to maintain interest in his or her profession. With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, experts in the field have experienced difficulties linked to the risk of infection and the requirements for special care when dealing with people. The primary purpose of this paper is a detailed description of the features of the profession before and after the pandemic, as well as those changes that directly affected social work. The social worker, as a professional, should understand the essence of the theory of conflicts, and be a stress-resistant and friendly person, despite the misunderstandings. The profession has now undergone technological development and requires workers to improve their workflow and understand how innovation works. The crisis period demonstrated that specialists in this field also need rest and psychological support in order to perform professional tasks successfully.
During the consideration of various topics in this paper, the description of the profession as a whole and its functioning before the pandemic will be touched upon. The next block will be an analysis of information on how social workers have changed since the coronavirus period and how this event has affected the field. Finally, a separate part will be devoted to the analysis of the professionalism and changes in the professional culture of social workers. At the end of the work, there will be a conclusion summarizing all the quoted arguments and demonstrating the results of the analysis.
Description of Social Work Before the Coronavirus Pandemic
The development of the social sphere has always been regarded as a strategic direction in improving the quality of human life. Before the pandemic, social work was also important, even though it was less ordinary and necessary. In general, this profession can be described as a form of activity aimed at achieving social change, but only a few years ago, Its development required technological intervention. The theory of this kind of activity includes many factors, such as the human perception of social protection and assistance, ideas of conflict, and social guarantees for the needy. One example is the implementation of various activities to support families with children in the temporary care and implementation of individual family plans to address the causes of family problems (Bardauskiene & Pivoriene, 2018). The plans included counseling, parent training, and mental health services, and working with lawyers and lawyers in the event of trials. In general, social workers helped families support their reunification and social change efforts.
The economic modernization in different countries also contributed to the development of social work, so workers had to keep up with current trends. This type of activity is inherent in the professional style of work organization, as each employee is required to have specific knowledge. This work is not just the provision of services but the multilateral development of the personality both psychologically and mentally, and physically. A professional should have an appropriate level of education and maintain a friendly character and intentions. As a person’s life expectancy increases, the amount of work in the social sphere also increases, so an employee is required to have even more professional skills. The structure of social work changes in favor of individual analysis and mixing if its historical and present characteristics are analyzed (Prayuda & Nurdin, 2018). Thus, social work increasingly pays attention to the development of the professional qualities of employees, as this profession requires special working skills with vulnerable segments of the population.
Social workers may sometimes find it challenging to reach their goals. Because of the hierarchical nature of the health system, health professionals may need more support in their ability to cooperate across professions. The purpose of social workers in healthcare institutions is to provide assistance and support to patients and their relatives and to facilitate cooperation and communication between health teams (Downey, 2018). Thus, training in structural competencies is the best solution to enable collaboration between the field of medicine and the social task of health. This approach increases public awareness of how social structures influence the health outcomes of health professionals, enabling social workers to protect their patients better. Despite notable progress in social and health cooperation, further efforts and development are still needed. Such measures include the removal of systemic barriers that impede interprofessional collaboration among workers, as well as ongoing training in the necessary structural competencies. In general, employees’ pre-pandemic goals were to improve patient relationships as much as possible. These goals have yet to be fully achieved, as their implementation takes time and requires additional effort.
Social workers adopt a holistic approach to their work, meaning they consider the different factors that shape the lives of their patients. These factors include economic, social, and political as well as cultural factors, which give an overall picture of the well-being of humans. Park, Krath, and Jeffrey (2018) analyzed the concept of sustainability among social workers and identified strengths and weaknesses in their work. On the one hand, specialists could recognize and address systemic inequalities between patients and were perceived as having a “social justice orientation and critical understanding of structural oppression” (Park et al., 2018, p. 8). On the other hand, social workers may need to improve sustainability. However, it is often promoted in the profession, and specialists may not be responsible for systemic problems, only overcoming difficulties solely by man. This may be the result of social workers ignoring structural changes but of interventions at the individual level. Thus, social workers have strengths: the focus on fairness and integrity in their work performance. Nevertheless, each specialist in this field should be able to think and understand the essence of sustainability to address systemic problems arising in practice more effectively.
Impact of the Pandemic on the Functioning of Social Work
During the coronavirus pandemic, social workers became professionals whose task remained to provide services to assist vulnerable groups. These groups include the elderly and homeless, as well as patients who live with mental health problems. Social workers have played a crucial role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the importance of their work cannot be overestimated (Ethical challenges for social workers, 2020). Professionals had to react to the new ethical challenges posed by the pandemic, which included ensuring patient confidentiality while providing virtual services. Social workers are also forced to deal with worsening systemic problems, such as rising poverty and social inequality.
The global crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic caused a significant shift in the work of social workers, impacting various areas of human life. Specialists had to find new innovative solutions for quality patient care and adapt to such methods of work. Some social workers have moved to a remote work format, conducting online sessions and videoconferences to communicate with patients and colleagues (Ethical challenges for social workers, 2020). To achieve security, new protocols were introduced to protect themselves and customers during face-to-face meetings. This included wearing personal protective equipment and maintaining social distancing during the session. Social workers were also forced to help address the pandemic, which involved increased isolation and social and financial insecurity. Specialists demonstrated resilience to the pandemic’s challenges and adapted their activities to current needs, ensuring safety for themselves and their patients regardless of changing circumstances.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought opportunities and new threats to the work of social workers. Specialists were able to participate in providing emotional support to patients, defending their rights and freedoms, as well as meeting the psychosocial needs of patients. However, the pandemic has also revealed threats that may have hampered the development of social work. For example, social workers faced threats such as increased exposure to the virus in service delivery, lack of personal protective equipment, and the risk of emotional burnout (Miller & Grise-Owens, 2022). Also, as already mentioned, some employees have moved to a remote format of work, which was the impetus to learn innovative technologies for a comfortable position. Thus, the main positive opportunities for social workers are to demonstrate the importance and value of their work, without which human life would be infinitely more complex. However, the pandemic has also brought to light specific threats that point to the need to increase the resources available to workers to provide life-saving services to patients.
Social workers continue to assist those in need during the gradual improvement of the epidemiological situation following the coronavirus pandemic. For example, according to a survey of Canadian social workers, Canadian health professionals continue to provide life-saving assistance to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic (Ashcroft et al., 2022). However, vulnerable groups often suffer from mental health problems, stress, and financial hardship due to social exclusion. Similarly, social workers in Quebec feel overwhelmed by increased workloads and resource constraints, while British Columbia workers have difficulty working with marginalized groups (Ashcroft et al., 2022). Despite all the problems mentioned above, specialists in different countries have been able to adapt their activities to current needs and challenges and have established cooperation with other organizations for the social assistance of the population. Thus, workers continue to advocate for improved access to health care to prevent further complications from the pandemic
Changes in Professional Culture, Structure, and Power Dynamics
The coronavirus pandemic has also challenged the professional culture of social workers. According to a study by Okafor (2021), the pandemic caused a change in the working environment, as well as in the way in which employees provide their services to the patient. The nature of work and client relations have changed as social workers need to adapt to innovative technologies. The decline in social interactions caused by the transition to virtual service delivery has affected how social workers communicate with their peers and clients. The pandemic also had a significant impact on the privacy of social workers, which led to increased levels of stress. Thus, despite the emerging challenges in the professional field, professionals were able to maintain their resilience and flexibility in response to change, which once again demonstrated their commitment to their profession.
The structure of work and power dynamics did change during the coronavirus pandemic. The work structure was implemented through virtual platforms that allowed the organization of meetings with patients and colleagues. In addition, social workers had to increase their decision-making responsibility which changed the power dynamics and increased the workload on the person, contributing to peritraumatic distress among social workers during the pandemic (Miller & Grise-Owens, 2022). The pandemic has highlighted the problems that predate it in the health system and relate to disparities and systemic issues. Overall, the pandemic has altered the entire structure of social work, which may affect the profession in the long term.
Social workers must adapt rapidly to new working and service conditions, including digitalization. The professionalism in social work has also changed due to the coronavirus pandemic (Ashcroft et al., 2022). The crisis conditions have made workers more flexible in their work, paying more attention to the emotional component of patient interaction. The specialist should be more stress-tolerant and more conflict-sensitive than before the pandemic, as patients’ mental health has also changed. In this regard, professionalism lies in maintaining ethical standards and values, meeting the needs of patients, and continuing professional development, which shows the specialist’s competence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it must be emphasized that the working conditions of social workers before and after the coronavirus pandemic are very different. While before the crisis, the specialist’s task was to ensure the basic needs of the patient; after that, another important job was to provide psychological support. A professional should be able to use innovative technologies and have the opportunity to improve the patient’s condition in virtual form. Stress tolerance and the ability to resolve conflicts became another factor that became a necessity for the social worker, able to find the right approach to each patient. The financial and family problems of the vulnerable have also made it difficult for social workers to cope with the effects of the crisis. However, despite the threats and challenges that the pandemic has brought to social work, it has also once again demonstrated the importance of the profession. During the crisis, humanity realized the fundamental importance of social workers as specialists, without whose work life of socially vulnerable patients would be impossible
References
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