Social work professionals played key role during pandemic, says study

‘They were at forefront in channelising participation in service activities’

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown a marked increase in empathy towards others, and witnessed both individuals and organisations going all out to help those in need, setting aside all differences. Social work professionals were in the forefront in channelising resources and people’s participation in service activities.

These findings were revealed in a pan-India study report ‘Professional social work response to COVID-19 affected families in India - facilitating services and building awareness during the second wave,’ brought out by B. Devi Prasad, a former Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, Ankit Kumar Keshri, Senior Research Fellow, TISS, and Shivangi Deshwal, a Graduate Research Assistant, at the School of Social Work, University of Maryland, USA.

The report is the outcome of a nationwide online survey carried out between July and September 2021 to know the professional social workers’ response to the second wave in India. It was published by the National Association of Professional Social Workers in India (NAPSWI) and released in the second week of March, this year.

“Social work students of various colleges and universities, across the country, were involved in the study. They collected the data from the field, when the pandemic was at its peak, taking all necessary precautions. Our findings are once again confirmed by the World Happiness Report 2022 (WHR-2022), the findings of which were released recently. Our study had also shown that the affected persons demonstrated more resilience in dealing with COVID-19, wherever there was greater social support,” Prof. Devi Prasad told The Hindu.

“The social work professionals contributed to relief in terms of provision of food and other materials, played an important role in promoting COVID appropriate behaviour, which was vital to check the spread of the pandemic, and in channelising individual efforts in reaching out to the needy persons. This shows how professional social work can be leveraged in dealing with a crisis,” he says.

The other areas in which the social work professionals contributed towards mitigating the crisis included: extending free psychological counselling and support to the families affected by the pandemic, providing key information about COVID-19 tests, vaccines, helpdesks, quarantine centres, oxygen supplies and in obtaining entitlement documents, which are required to avail of government welfare schemes.

The WHR-2022 also confirmed increasing levels of pro-social activity in almost all nations of the world, during the pandemic, emerging initially in 2020 with increased help to strangers, donations and volunteering and with large increases in all activities in 2021.