Social work in the age of disconnection: Narrative case studies

ABSTRACT

In 2020, social workers stood out as essential, frontline workers. This edited text brings together the stories of nine clinical social workers working during COVID-19, exploring the disconnections caused by a forced use of technology as well as the disconnections apparent in a time of social injustice. In the spirit of tolerating the ambiguous spaces of unknowing, the textbook presents no right answers or specific agendas. Instead, it inspires reader engagement and connective thinking by presenting a series of explorations where writing is as much a method of inquiry as a statement about what is true. This book begins with three accounts of "Connection During Times of Disconnection" in cases that show the ways that young and old have benefited from the technology. Then, in "Ambivalence and Connection through the Screen", the book presents cases that challenge hopeful views, worrying about the unique effects of 21st-century dissociation and disembodiment. Finally, in "Bridging the Gap Disconnection and Reconnection During Times of Social Change", it explores the disconnection between humans in an age of racial conflict and inequality. Employing narrative strategies to capture this transformative moment of our history, these chapters will explore the effects of technology and social media on psychotherapy, the delivery of services for the chronically mentally ill and elderly, as well as the consequences of recent cultural shifts on our conceptions of gender, sexuality, race, the immigrant experience, and political activism. While traditional research methodologies tend to address social problems as if they were divorced from the lives and experiences of human beings, these chapters employ phenomenological description of how the existing system functions, to identify theory-to-practice gaps and to recover the experiences of the person within the various institutional structures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)