Vulnerable families in Ukraine as the main social service users: comparison of the pre-pandemic and pandemic period

ABSTRACT

In the 21st century, humanity faced a pandemic - COVID-19 which caused a collapse in all spheres of society and economy and led to humanitarian, socio-economic, and medical crises in the world (Thompson & Rasmussen, 2020). People had to learn how to live in new conditions and fight with insidious disease. Many countries closed their boundaries, declared lockdowns and other strict response measures (Nay, 2020) to keep their citizens safe. All these heightened risk factors are influencing already vulnerable populations, including families, making their already rather difficult situations worse. Moreover, the system of social protection of families and vulnerable families particularly also faced new challenges. Social service providers had to adapt programs and meet the evolving needs of all families during the pandemic. Ukraine is not the exception. But there is one big difference between the world and Ukraine in social work practice the beginning of the pandemic in the world coincided with the development of a new system of providing social services at the level of territorial communities in Ukraine. So, this paper will 1) summarize the existing approaches to "family” understanding and studies regarding the problem of vulnerability of families and role of different factors causing family vulnerability before the pandemic and at the beginning of it;2) provide brief analysis of Ukrainian system of social work with families, vulnerable families started to be provided;3) present data regarding vulnerability among families in Ukraine in 2019 and in 2020, factors that caused vulnerability;4) inform about social service providers activity in turn to help vulnerable families to cope with problems before and in the time of pandemic;and 4) provide recommendations for government and local social agencies working with vulnerable families how to make their work better. © 2022,Social Work and Society. All Rights Reserved.