This book focusses on social work in the time of COVID-19. Social workers, their clients, and the organisations they represent have been affected by the pandemic in multiple ways. The pandemic and various efforts to curb the viral outbreak, such as face masks and lockdowns, have forced social workers to adapt to a 'new normal', launch new practices, mobilise social support and networks remotely, and above all, defend the most vulnerable populations. This requires an understanding of how social work and its clients are prepared for, capable to respond to, and further, to recover from a societal crisis and human disasters, like a coronavirus pandemic.
Divided into three parts, it provides a wealth of knowledge related to social work in different local and cultural contexts during the period of the global pandemic. With experienced social work researchers across a diversity of settings, contexts, and research traditions, the book is reflective of the 'glocal' response of social work. Offering new perspectives on challenges social workers have faced in dealing with the pandemic, it makes critical and timely insights into the innovations and adaptations in social work responses, with a strong empirical basis.
It will be of interest to all social work scholars, students, and practitioners.
About the Author: Timo Harrikari, PhD, is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Lapland and Research Professor in Child Welfare at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL, Finland.
Joseph Mooney, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Social Work at University College Dublin, Ireland, and a former social work practitioner.
Malathi Adusumalli, PhD, is a Professor at the faculty of University of Delhi with over two decades of teaching experience and over seven years of working actively with grassroots organisations in the field of social action, disaster management, and development. She has published her work in national and international journals and has three books to her credit. She has successfully guided M.Phil. and Ph.D. research scholars. She is a firm believer in anti-oppressive social work practice.
Paula McFadden, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Ulster University and teaches at undergraduate, postgraduate, master's, and PhD levels. Paula's main research interests are centred on workforce wellbeing, resilience, and burnout. Paula has conducted several UK-wide research studies, examining burnout in social workers, workforce ageing in social work, and more recently, wellbeing and coping during COVID-19, for health and social care professions, including social workers.
Tuomas Leppiaho, B.Soc.Sc., is a research assistant and a master's student in political sciences at the University of Lapland.
