This second issue of volume 34 of Practice, sees us entering the third year of Covid 19. It has in many ways begun to permanently shape societal behaviour and by consequence social work practice. It seems appropriate therefore that this issue picks up on the themes of Covid and other contexts for social work practice. As previously stated, we have an editorial policy approach of publishing Covid related articles as soon as they successfully complete the peer review and production processes. This issue continues that intent, with two more such articles. However some of the changes in working practices which have accelerated under Covid, i.e. the use of online consultation and working from home, had already begun through shifts to flexible or agile working. Further the increasing nature of multidisciplinary working has also affected the context and place of delivery of social work. Both the Covid articles and our other three contributions explore these additional context considerations of the online, multidisciplinary and non-social work office delivery.
Our first article comes from China. In which, Min Ren, Binbin Wang and Michael Rasell articulate that flexibility is a concept can boost the social work profession and build professional identity in contexts where social work is being established. Their arguments are drawn from reflective analysis of social work responses to Covid 19 in two Chinese cities. Through a review of literature on social work responses to major disasters and pandemics, and then more immediate reflection on the direct experiences in Wuhan and Dongguan, Ren et al. identify: changing needs and users of services, adjustment in resources, and new forms of collaboration as shaping social work reactions. While the authors specifically identify this adaptable flexibility as a response to Covid-19, these three principles can readily help us understand much of the other factors that change the context and shape new practices for social work. Finally Ren et al. suggest that through: knowledge production, changing structures and promotion of professional identity that responding flexible to the changing context can enhance social work’s status.
Responding to the changing mental health needs of adolescents has already seen social work move into complex multidisciplinary and often hospital or medically based practice. In our second article, Philip John Archard, Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Nicolle Morris and Michelle O’Reilly explore how these contextual factors can be understood through and analysis of consultation data and were further stretched through the early stages of the pandemic. Archard et al. describe the process of the adolescent mental health team providing consultations to other professionals, and in doing so reveal a myriad of complexities and overlapping practice between the mental health specialists, and those working in homelessness, youth justice and with ‘looked after’ [in care] children. The examination of the audit data into the first phase of the pandemic lockdown revealed two key themes, resonant with those Ren et al. namely the changing needs of the user, in this instance the added complexities to experiences of mental health by young people; and, secondly, the user of resources - how technology (use of video-conference consultations) enabled, and in some instances created barriers, to engagement.
Practising online, and in particular the use of social media, is then considered by Sofia Grammenos and Neil Warner. In an analysis of 569 responses by a range of social work staff to an online questionnaire they established a mixed level of positive and negative regard for how social media impacts on social work practice. As with the use of video conference, social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) was identified as useful in facilitating communication both with professionals and with service users. However limitations were also noted, particularly negative portrayal of social workers, and increased sense of social worker vulnerability through online identification. Grammenos and Warner note that examinations of the use of technology highlight issues of inequality and diversity, and hint at potential need for guidance or training in this increasing element of social work practice.
Our final two articles, take many of the themes explored so far and consider social work practice in the context of acute settings of hospital. Firstly, Emma Wakeman and Nicola Moran utilise some in-depth qualitative interviews to focus on the experiences of carers of those detained in inpatient settings under the {English} Mental Health Act. Secondly, Joan Fang and Euan Donley, identify and review the characteristics and uses of family violence screening tools in emergency departments.
Wakeman and Moran in discussing the carers emotional fatigue and sense of powerlessness, help us identify the importance of social work in helping to navigate the world of the compulsory hospital setting and maintenance and reintegration into the community and familial supportive networks. Fang and Donley using a scoping study to examine 12 studies from the Australia, Europe and North America. In their exploration of the characteristics and use of such tools, they also highlight the role of computers and how an area of practice ordinarily associated with community and criminal justice social work might situate itself within acute hospital setting.
Taken as whole, all five articles offer a picture of changing context and therefore changing practice. In a way they also help reinforce that an international view of social work is one that is shaped by the local context, but equally influenced by some core social considerations - those of equality of access, responding to need, working across boundaries and in partnership with those accessing services and other professionals. Change in social work is often increasingly regarded as the only constant. This issue highlights that in taking an informed response to delivering flexible solutions, social work has a role in many contexts, like Covid and hospitals, which initial seem very medically orientated.
Finally, Robin and I would like to extend our thanks to Christine Cocker and Adi Cooper and their fellow authors for their hard work in producing the last issue special edition on Transitional Safeguarding.
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