Delovanje centrov za socialno delo v času prvega in drugega vala epidemije covida-19

slovenian

2021

volume 60, issue 3

crisis management   extreme circumstances   leadership   professional autonomy   service users   social workers

Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za socialno delo

Problems caused by the Covid-19 epidemic are not only health-related, but stretch to multiple levels of social and private life. Social work should play an important role in extreme circumstances and contribute to creating appropriate responses to new social situations. Results of »Social work in time of Covid-19« research, carried out from March 2020 till April 2021 using mixed methods of data collection, show that social work didn‘t play a visible role in designing anti-Corona measures and that social consequences of governmental measures were overlooked. Social work centres in Slovenia were not ready for a major natural disaster and didn‘t have appropriate practices in store for dealing with extreme circumstances. Based on analysis of data from the research, and considering scientific framework for doing social work in extreme situations, meaningful guidelines for operating social services in time of Covid-19 epidemic can be formed. Mainly, professional autonomy should be respected and made possible. Leadership style should be horizontal enabling connection and self-organisation of the employed as this increases availability of services to users as well as satisfaction of the employed. The research shows that those social work centres that functioned according to this guideline, were able to conduct their work more openly for service users. As a consequance, more proactive and direct social work with people was possible.

27.12.2021