Social work student telephones expert by experience. Service users involvement in social work education during COVID-19 pandemic

This article presents an innovative activity based on the involvement of Experts by Experience in social work education. The activity was conducted in Italy during weeks of lockdown. In the spring of 2020, due to containment measures adopted by the Italian government to face with COVID-19, day-long meetings of students of social work with Experts by Experience were suspended. This impediment encouraged educators to develop a new initiative named 'Social work student telephones Expert by Experience' in which 119 students of social work and 69 Experts by Experience participated. The activity entailed a telephone call exchanged between a student and an Expert by Experience. After their respective calls, each student was invited to fill out an online form describing the lived experience through a short story addressed to an imaginary friend. Three main themes emerged from the content analysis of the students' stories: students' learnings acquired through the activity;students' feelings during the activity;students' overall opinions on the educational activity. In the international field of service users' involvement in social work education, the activity represents an innovation that could inspire other universities to adopt similar practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Social work student telephones Expert by experience. Service users involvement in social work education during Covid-19 pandemic

This article presents an innovative activity based on the involvement of Experts by Experience in social work education. The activity was conducted in Italy during weeks of lockdown. In the spring of 2020, due to containment measures adopted by the Italian government to face with COVID-19, day-long meetings of students of social work with Experts by Experience were suspended. This impediment encouraged educators to develop a new initiative named ‘Social work student telephones Expert by Experience’ in which 119 students of social work and 69 Experts by Experience participated. The activity entailed a telephone call exchanged between a student and an Expert by Experience. After their respective calls, each student was invited to fill out an online form describing the lived experience through a short story addressed to an imaginary friend. Three main themes emerged from the content analysis of the students’ stories: students’ learnings acquired through the activity;students’ feelings during the activity;students’ overall opinions on the educational activity. In the international field of service users’ involvement in social work education, the activity represents an innovation that could inspire other universities to adopt similar practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Social Work Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The dialogue between what we are living and what we are teaching and learning during Covid-19 pandemic: Reflections of two social work educators from Italy and Spain.

Italy and Spain have been the most-affected countries in the EU by Covid-19 pandemic. Along with the health, social and economic life of the countries, social work and social work education have been turned upside down. In this essay, the authors reflect on the pandemic's impact on social work education activities through social work students' lenses. Accompanying Italian and Spanish students in reflecting on what they were living both, personally and as citizens during Covid-19 and witnessing how, paradoxically, the pandemic offered new opportunities to make important discoveries about key social work issues.

Social workers helping each other during the COVID-19 pandemic: Online mutual support groups

Social workers not only help service users, they also help each other, and they know the group as a space through which opportunities to give and receive help multiply. In Italy, the initiative ?Social Workers Helping Each Other? was launched to help practitioners stay resilient and mutually supportive during the COVID-19 pandemic. In these unprecedented and turbulent times, social workers have been called on to face new challenges and new concerns for service users and for themselves. The initiative consisted of online mutual support groups for social workers conducted through a virtual platform. Participants were 45 social workers divided into three groups on the basis of the social workers? area of intervention. The author facilitated the groups, encouraging the development of reciprocal support dynamics typical of self-help and mutual aid groups. Group sessions were very rich in content, and the discussion focused on several topics following the participants? needs. The content analysis revealed that the mutual support conversations among social workers focused on three main categories: practical and organizational;methodological and ethical;and personal and emotional. The groups offered supervision and mutual support based on experiential learning processes. The article presents the rationale, methods and outcomes of the experience. This initiative could inspire the development of online mutual support groups for social workers.