digitalisaatio & sosiaaliala
MAHDOLLINEN YHTÄLÖ
Using information technology has been discussed and developed in social work research for decades [1; 2] but the progress of digitalization in social work practice has been slower [3] and the potential of digital possibilities have not been fully acknowledged [4]. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe, causing restrictions in the society and a need for social distancing to prevent the virus from spreading. In the context of social work practice this meant a rapid digital leap. Suddenly a lot of things needed to change: social workers could not meet their clients face-to-face as usual and most of the normal encounters between people needed to happen online. Based on our research it seemed that social workers had a will to keep social work practice as similar as possible, compared to the way it was before the pandemic, and only move it to digital forms. We decided to name this phenomenon digitally mediated social work (DMSW). In a recent research article, we analyzed social workers’ experiences of taking the digital leap and shifting towards digitally mediated social work at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. We wanted to find out how social workers see that their work practices can be done in digital forms, what kind of obstacles or possibilities they see in encountering their clients in digital spaces and what experiences were gained from the digital leap in the spring of 2020. We analyzed a data of 33 personal diaries written by social work professionals from March to May 2020 and we found out that the digital form of social work practice, or DMSW, can be viewed from three dimensions: 1) the basis of DMSW, 2) Conceived DMSW and 3) Lived DMSW. However, the dimensions are not completely separable, but rather interact with each other. First, a working base for digital social work practice can be built on a well-planned and working digital infrastructure. Social workers need up-to-date devices, applicable software and good internet connections to encounter their clients in digital spaces. Well-working tools alone are not enough. The devices and software need to also be suitable and applicable in the context of social work. Client and data security need to be ensured. To carry out all the elements of a working basis for DMSW things like the organizational culture and ICT, employee training, procedures, norms and management need to be in order. In the second dimension the attention turns on what social workers actually think about digitally mediated social work. The competencies and preparedness of social workers and clients and different possibilities or obstacles faced in the digital spaces are in focus. People tend to have pre-determined opinions and attitudes towards digitalization and digital service forms and it all comes to the readiness and willingness to change existing practices and learning new things. Based on our analysis, it is important to pay attention to organizational and cultural principles and social workers’ possibilities to apply professional discretion also in the digital forms of social work practices. Thirdly, the last dimension consists of the actual lived experiences of implementing social work in digital forms in the everyday practice. The focus of the dimension is on the relations between clients and social workers: establishing relationships, human presence, promoting confidence, trusting each other and open dialogue. The key factors in successful experiences deal with creating a right kind of atmosphere for communication, reaching emotional levels in discussions and digital intimacy. Implementing social work in digital forms cannot be done at the expense of the core aims or tasks of social work. We explored the digital implementations of social work practice during an exceptional pandemic time where the digital leap was quick and at least somewhat forced. It seems that in the crisis situation social work and its’ services were wanted to work as similarly as they did before in the more traditional face-to-face way. It was quite quickly noticed that digital implementations create a totally different space and context for social work. The pandemic setting highlighted that the digital leap of social work was maybe even too quick and there wasn’t enough time to prepare and develop social work organizations and practices. The expectations for services and practices staying unchanged and the attempts to shift them to online forms as they were can lead to limiting the wide variety of well-working, flexible and applicable options that digital forms of social work could offer. However, the forced digital leap made it obvious that digital practices offer great ways of working in the field of social work. At its’ best it can extend the options to promote client well-being and other core tasks of social work, create possibilities to applicable forms of working in changing environments, save time and add flexibility. Combining the best elements of face-to-face interaction and digital ways of working, a ‘hybrid-model’, has been discussed as a well-working way of doing social work [4]. Our analysis shows that digitally mediated social work provides flexibility to social work practice as it offers promising ways to extend spatial and temporal solutions. Social work with clients is always context specific and linked to the expertise and discretion of social workers. Successfully performed digital forms of practice require new kinds of competencies and skills [5]. Developing digital practices should be intertwined to basic education instead of it being the matter of individual social workers or work teams. Writer: Vera Fiorentino Doctoral researcher, University of Lapland The blog text is based on the article ‘Towards Digitally Mediated Social Work- the Impact of COVID19 -pandemic to Encountering Clients in Social Work’ by Vera Fiorentino, Marjo Romakkaniemi, Timo Harrikari, Sanna Saraniemi & Laura Tiitinen (2022) Qualitative Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250221075603. References:
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Blogin tarkoitusBlogissa julkaistaan tieteellisiä kirjoituksia sosiaalialan digitalisaatiosta eri näkökulmista. Blogi toimii sosiaalialan digitalisaation ajan kuvaajana ja tallentajana, sekä tietolähteenä ja keskustelun virittäjänä kaikille aiheesta kiinnostuneille. Arkisto
January 2024
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