Resources Database

Although the critical role of social workers in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and support for communities affected by the virus was stressed in international declarations of the social work profession, how social workers fulfil their role in practice has remained virtually unexplored. This question is of greater importance when it comes to ethnic minority communities that may be disproportionately vulnerable to COVID-19 in light of inequities, discrimination and marginality.

This article explores the experiences of social workers at a non-governmental organization (NGO) involved in disaster responses to COVID-19 in a rural and resource-challenged region of Cambodia. The views of Khmer and international social workers in the NGO were gathered through an internal auditing process utilising survey and structured conversation methods. Key themes related to the importance of prioritising the safety of staff and clients, effective communication methods, responsiveness of case management systems, public health responses and adapting to emerging needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed social work in the limelight alongside the various medical professions and has created a rare opportunity for transforming the oppressed image of the profession. Based on a broad perspective—historical, social and political—we show how the development of a collective needs-conscious identity can lead to active protests on the part of social workers against their condition. This process is brought into sharp focus by critical analysis of media reports on the protests held by social workers in Israel in July 2020.

The aim of this study was to understand the extent and nature of social work literature relating to preparedness in the context of natural disasters and to identify the implications for further research, theory and practice. A systematic scoping review explored scholarly databases pertaining to literature about social work and disaster preparedness, between 2000 and 2019; a total of thirty-nine articles met the inclusion criteria.

The consequences of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have raised many challenges in the social services workforce. The current study aimed to examine the associations between job demands, coping strategies (i.e. emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping) and psychological distress exhibited by social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the mediating role of different coping strategies was investigated for the associations revealed. The participants were 615 social workers, working in various organisations and with diverse populations in Israel.

In many parts of the world, social workers have long supported disaster responses although in Aotearoa New Zealand, social work is not generally considered an essential component of disaster management. Promoting the development of safer, less vulnerable communities, is however a key activity for both social work and disaster management. The recent shift from a traditional focus on hazards to vulnerability and resilience consolidates the alignment and importance of social work within this field.

The 2021 Long-Term Care Report provides an overview of the state of play of long-term care systems in the EU and recent reforms, highlighting also first response measures taken during the pandemic. The report maps current and future demand for long-term care and gaps in accessing formal care, in the context of demographic changes, in particular the growing share of the older population and changes in the household structures and the labour market.

This study presents a detailed overview of promising practices in child care reform by different implementers and stakeholders in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Changing the Way We Care puts forth its view of comprehensive care reform as consisting of three essential components:  (i) strengthening the family and preventing the unnecessary separation of the child from his or her family environment, (ii) deinstitutionalization processes; and (iii) strengthening alternative family care.

This second report in the series of COVID Learning Reports presents the findings from COVID 4P Log responses about respondents’ experiences of receiving supervision during the pandemic, as well as about their coping and wellbeing during this time. The report discusses topics such as the characteristics of useful supervision, as well as the impact of having (or not having) such supervision on respondents’ coping and work performance.

This report presents statistical data from 192 countries on children experiencing COVID-19-associated orphanhood and death of grandparent caregivers, a description of the trends in these data, a real-time COVID-19 Calculator for Death of Parents and Caregivers, and strategies and principles for integrating care for children bereaved by the virus into every nation’s COVID-19 response planning.

Ubuntu is the current theme for the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development and represents the highest level of global messaging within the social work profession for the years 2020–2030. This article presents an in-depth description of Ubuntu as a philosophy of social development that can strengthen social work theory and practice in its global aims of supporting community systems of social protection and social justice.

The importance of mainstreaming gender into social protection policies and programmes is increasingly recognized. However, evidence on the extent to which this is actually happening remains limited. This report contributes to filling this evidence gap by drawing on the findings of two complementary research projects undertaken by UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and UN Women in 2019.

This study explores the effect of COVID-19 on a small number of privately run and funded residential care institutions by conducting a qualitative research study comprising 21 semi-structured interviews across seven focus countries.

This participant’s handbook relates to Module 3 of the Government of Rwanda’s Tubarerere Mu Muryango (TMM) training programme. It is for Child Protection and Welfare Officers who work directly with children and families on reintegration of children, including children with disabilities from residential institutions.

This training package is primarily for Government of Rwanda’s Child Protection and Welfare Officers who work directly with children and families on reintegration of children (including children with disabilities) from residential institutions.

This operational guidance describes how the Government of Rwanda conducts case management for reintegration of children from residential institutions to family-based care, including children with disabilities. It contains all the information needed for a Child Protection and Welfare Officer to carry out their case management tasks so that children can live safely and thrive with their own family or in family-based alternative care.

UNICEF's Child Protection Learning Briefs aim to extract, synthesise and analyse learning on child protection risks and programme adaptation in the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to improving policy, advocacy and programme results during infectious disease outbreaks. This learning brief examines how UNICEF has supported the continuity of efforts in child protection and in protecting women and girls at risk of gender-based violence by adapting services and programmes during COVID-19.

To effectively mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in the light of protecting children’s wellbeing, policy and practice responses must be distinctively designed to address children’s wellbeing needs. Policymakers and those working with children are at the heart of the pandemic response.

The goal of this case study, produced by the Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE), is to demonstrate a working model of family-based care in Zambia which can produce a replicable framework that can be modified for other regions and circumstances. This paper seeks to shed light on positive outcomes when family-based care is prioritized.