COVID-19 Impact

Social workers must take care of their collective mental health during extreme times of stress while helping families, children and youth. The COVID-19 pandemic came “out of the blue” and has impacted all of us in different aspects of our lives. Many people have lost loved ones and have experienced many disruptions in their lives. We have seen loss of jobs, children being displaced from schools, parents not having resources for childcare and/or being able to provide basic needs to their families.

As social workers, this has caused many of us to find alternative ways to service the clients we work with and adjust to a new reality. We have also experienced disruptions in how we service our clients. Furthermore, by not seeing clients face to face on a regular basis, it has led to a gradual lack of consistency and accountability in the client’s part.

Many of the clients we serve are of low socio-economic status and experiencing poverty. As a result, with these challenges, many of our clients do not have access to resources such as smart phones that allow the ability to provide tele-health, access to Wi-Fi, computers and laptops to allow children to receive distance learning.

Overall, we want to ensure that our safety, along with the clients’, are being met and we are still adhering to the National Association of Social Workers code of ethics and continue to provide services and continued support.