ABSTRACT
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The virus is primarily spread between people during close contact via small virulent droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, and talking, with less common infection spread by touching a contaminated surface and then touching one's face. The coronavirus pandemic has also disrupted the provision of social work services ranging from child welfare and school social work to clinical and psychiatric social work. During the COVID-19 emergency, states and localities issued emergency stay-at-home orders requiring the temporary closure of nonessential businesses, including some private social work practices. As the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, social work practice will adjust to the needs of the client groups. The most vulnerable and marginalized populations will experience greater impacts on their health;welfare;economic stability;and access to medical care, education, and technology. Social work will have a valuable role to play in the amelioration of negative impacts that are devastating the United States and the world. The infusion of telemedicine and teletherapy in social work practice seems inevitable, and it is hoped that these will provide an efficient and effective new social work practice modality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The crisis created by the spread of COVID-19 brought increasing needs and referrals to social welfare services in many countries. However, at the same time, social services suffered from staff cutbacks and service closures, resulting in significant workload increases to address the hardships associated with the pandemic. This article investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Israeli social workers' well-being, using a mixed-methods design with a sample of 2,542 licensed social workers. Findings show that over 70 percent of social workers suffered from at least one health problem related to their work. Path analysis findings indicated that social workers who experienced greater service restrictions reported a greater decrease in job satisfaction and experienced higher levels of stress and work-related problems. Machine learning emotion-detection analysis revealed that the pandemic affected their lives, causing feelings of fear, frustration, and sadness. This article demonstrates how social workers whose work was characterized by greater service restrictions were less satisfied with their jobs, more stressed, and experienced greater job-related health problems, and concludes with a discussion of the implications for social work practice in times of crisis.