Summary

This article deals with Social Work and Mental Health, with a view to make some reflections about the work morphology in times of a pandemic in the Brazilian scenario. This is a literature review, with a qualitative approach, which brings to light elements related to the tripod outsourcing, flexibility and precariousness of work in a pandemic context. In this perspective, a first challenge is to break the unilateralities present in the biased interpretations that conceive the work of the social worker both from a fatalistic perspective, overestimating the strength and logic of capital's command in the process of social (re) production, as well as in the messianic perspective, shifting the emphasis from concrete historical-structural determinants to the political desires of the professional collective, which becomes overestimated. A second challenge is to bring the daily professional practice of the social worker to the center of the collective debate in the ambit of profession and to the diary of research and academic production in the area. In this perspective, despite the countless evidences that current working conditions generate mental illness in workers, the theoretical productions that take Social Work as an object of study and research constitute a third challenge and need to be expanded. Finally, a greater involvement of the workers' subjectivity, referring here to social workers, implies a fourth challenge, of an ethical-moral nature, not only due to the particular conflicts and conscience dramas experienced by these workers in extreme situations but, of the choices that policy managers decide, leading the majority user population of social services to a genocide, that is, societal drama and, therefore, ethical and political that compromise equality, justice and democracy.

Keywords (separate with commas)

social work; work morphology; mental health; pandemic times.

Summary

The pandemic has had world wide implications for populations and social work professionals. Economic challenges continue to increase, as does the the gap between rich and poor, with global unemployment projected to increase in both 2023 and 2024, reaching 211 million (ILO, 2023). The pandemic has highlighted the extent of societal challenges includes rising unemployment, underemployment,  informal work, precarity, conflict and persistent gender inequalities (the fall in women’s participation rate was 17 per cent, which compares with a 12.4 per cent decline in men’s labour force participation) (ILO, 2022).Social work to has been affected by the pandemic, which has highlighted the challenges of work during the crisis, the assault on public services in many countries, increasingly challenging working conditions, along with challenges to professional identity, role and its professional responsibilities. The profession needs to analyse contemporary social and economic contexts along with the increasing role of fictitious capital (Carcanholo & Nakatani, 2019) in most capitalist economies to rearticulate what constitutes a humane and socially society and how social work should struggle for social justice.This requires critical discussion and debates about the meaning and the agenda of the profession, and how it works in unison with others in society including other professionals, social movements, those with lived experience of social work services, families, and trade unions. Using the experiences of Brasil and the UK, we reflect on changing traditional care contexts (Deku et al, 2021), how the profession is being forced to re-evaluate its professional role and purpose, its engagement with technology (including artificial intelligence), its loss of confidence in skills and expertise due to the pandemic and neoliberal reform. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Social Work, Covid-19 Pandemic, professional role  

Summary

The Covid-19 Pandemic represented the biggest health, social, economic, and humanitarian crisis to hit the Planet in recent decades. It occurred while the\  implementation of neoliberalism in the world was in full swing, when social and assistance policies were suffering the impact of budget cuts, especially in health and\ assistance. The research “Theory and practice of social work in the world in times of pandemic”, funded by the International Association of Schools of Social Work\  (IASSW/AIETS), involving eleven universities in five countries in Europe and Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain and Sweden, took up the challenge of investigating the role of Social Work in this context. The research aimed to analyse the awareness of social workers regarding the lethality of the disease and to analyse the practices of readaptation of social services to protect vulnerable people, during the period in which the extraordinary measures to contain the pandemic were in force. Through in-depth interviews with social workers selected as key actors, in that context, the research identified that, in a situation marked by generalized panic and denialism, especially from most of the governments, social workers were first-rate actors, demonstrating total ethical commitment in facing the humanitarian crisis. Faced with the demands presented, there was an exceptional awareness on the part of professionals in the field, which has been reflecting positively on the self-conception that the profession has of itself. The Social Work response was to innovate in professional practice, building social networks, aiding services, despite the shar reduction in the professional/user distance and in the face of increasing social inequalities, resorting to a favourable reconsideration of the potential of new professional tools, such as remote work and the use of new service administration techniques, accumulating knowledge for world-class crisis and disaster situations.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Covid-19 Pandemic, International Social Work, Awareness,\