Abstract
Summary Social workers in China have been involved significantly in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduces the innovative interdisciplinary remote networking framework which both provides a guide for medical and community social workers’ involvement during the COVID-19 outbreaks, and also to support interdisciplinary collaboration with the aim of helping individuals and families in need during the pandemic. Findings The implementation of interdisciplinary remote networking, developed by Chinese social workers, has effectively addressed the different domains of need experienced by the affected population and has established a new approach for social work in the field of health. The framework also provides an effective model for setting up a targeted and sustained service system that links social workers with psychological and medical resources, which capitalize on social resources to buffer the negative impacts of the disease. Social workers play an essential role during such a public health emergency, providing critical services for patients and families, medical workers, self-quarantined residents, and the general population. Applications The service mode of interdisciplinary remote networking, based on the frontline experiences of social work interventions in China, may serve as a framework for combating COVID-19 in other countries. The framework is among the initiatives that provide transferrable skills to social work practitioners working in network-based social work services during public health emergencies. Thus, the framework presents implications for future practice development in both disaster social work and also public health social work.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic is a catastrophic threat to humanity, has sparked outbreaks worldwide
The framework provides an effective model for setting up a targeted and sustained service system that links social workers with psychological and medical resources, which capitalize on social resources to buffer the negative impacts of the disease
Social workers play an essential role during such a public health emergency, providing critical services for patients and families, medical workers, selfquarantined residents, and the general population
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic is a catastrophic threat to humanity, has sparked outbreaks worldwide. Public health and social efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 must be implemented with the full cooperation of all members of society (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). Such a catastrophe, which is not merely, or even primarily, a medical issue, calls for activating networks of different agents of society to better meet the needs of people amid the pandemic (Desai, 2007). When dealing with public health emergencies like the pandemic, countries across the globe should take measures at national level to balance the possible benefits and mitigate the negative consequences, by deploying strategies to encourage community engagement in reducing the infections and saving lives (WHO, 2020). The measures taken by China have shown that quarantine, social distancing, and isolation of infected populations can contain the pandemic
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