Social Work in Romania in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Strengths and Weaknesses

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed great challenges for all social work clients and their families, caregivers, medical and mental health care providers, and support systems. Social work clients are vulnerable to the detrimental effects of restrictions (isolation) and are confronted with adverse consequences from distancing and new rules, which may trigger or worsen psychiatric disorders (anxiety, depression, self-harm, substance abuse, suicidal behaviour and thoughts), according to recent literature (March-May 2020). This paper presents the results of a survey of Romanian social workers aimed at identifying both positive and negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on both social workers and their clients.

Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Home visits using visors and other personal protective equipment, the prohibition of reassuring touch with fearful, distressed, or confused individuals, online conferencing, and meetings replacing more inclusive and potentially supportive multi-professional approaches challenge our preferred modes of interaction [17]. Social workers used internet connections to mitigate the level of social isolation, however lack of digital literacy skills became another problem [5,22]. The pandemic has caused many different forms and layers of loss, both personal and professional, and social workers are not immune to confronting them [23].…”

“…Work patterns in the social work system have changed considerably during the state of emergency (March-May 2020) and state of alert (May 2020-present), ranging from remote work (from home, online, or over the phone), hybrid patterns, office work, isolation in an institution (shelters, placement centres, homes for the elderly, disabled, etc.) or suspension of work; working hours varied from normal (8 h/day at the office or in the field), in terms of shifts (8-h shifts, 12-h or 16-h shifts during the day and night) or simply regarding how long it took to accomplish a particular task [5,14]. The VUCA framework has the potential to provide new lenses to understand the changes and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in social work and transfer the experience of work and organisational psychology into strategies and actions for managers/leaders and professionals in the pursuit of a better adaptation to life in the 'new normal' state of emergency [15] and the unknown future.…”

“…When asked about what job resources were helpful to cope professionally with this 'difficult' period, social workers mentioned firstly the support from colleagues/co-workers (54 out of 83), secondly support from the manager (15 out of 83), and thirdly the beneficiaries or the type of work (9 out of 83). A few also mentioned their work partners/collaborator (5). The question "How has the organisation supported/helped you?"…”

“…Social isolation of vulnerable people (the elderly, people with disabilities, people with chronic diseases, etc. ), restrictive measures imposed, teleworking, overcrowding of hospitals, and the closure of schools and kindergartens have created a general state of uncertainty, chaos, stress, and panic among the population [3][4][5]. This has heightened the role of the social work and medical systems during the COVID-19 crisis, responding to inequalities and covering the most urgent social needs of vulnerable groups [6].…”

“…National and international literature on social work during the pandemic is emerging, though there is still much to be understood [4][5][6][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. This paper reported on results from an ongoing mixed-methods study on social workers during the pandemic in Romania.…”