Ny mötesstruktur för socialarbetare efter pandemi : - En kvalitativ studie om den snabbt ändrade mötesformen inom socialt arbete 2020–2021

• Main Author: Wall Löfving, Carola
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA) 2021
• Subjects: Covid -19; social worker; social services; meeting structure; face-to-face meetings; digitization.; socialarbetare; socialtjänst; mötesstruktur; ansikte mot ansikte-möte; digitalisering.; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-106665

The study is intended to show how the social workers and their clients are experiencing the new meeting structure, its problems and opportunities, as well as thoughts and feelings that arose during 2020-2021 in connection with Covid -19 pandemic. The study is qualitative, with a hermeneutic interpretive approach and has been conducted via semi-structured interviews with eight social workers. The theoretical starting point is Aaron Antonovsky's theory of KASAM, Berger & Luckmann's theory of reality as a social construction, George Herbert Mead´'s of Symbolic Interaction Theory, Johan Asplund's theory of social responsiveness and Grissi & Jeding's highlighting that man's most important stress management strategy is to seek social support from others. Conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that the restructuring of work and meeting structure during the pandemic has highlighted a lack of technology and lack of staff knowledge regarding digital platforms where the employer would have gained efficiency and trust among social workers if they had put a little more resources and time to secure up staff in the area. At the same time, social workers express a curiosity about working more digitally in the future. There is a consensus about which clients do not feel good about having meetings digitally and then a great desire is expressed to maintain the meeting structure face to face. Obstacles to digitalisation appear in the form of the client's lack of resources in the form of financial vulnerability, which also becomes an economic issue for the municipality. Difficulties are expressed in creating secure and trusting relationships at a distance, but there is a curiosity to try to meet the client based on his predictions in a new way. In the event of more difficult assessments, however, it is still considered that there is a need for physical meetings. The study highlights a concern that the employer should take the opportunity to, according to an efficiency thinking, remove self-determination in how and when to meet their clients. At the same time, the study points out that the social services can gain both financial and environmental resources by ensuring that social workers no longer travel many hours by car for follow-up or care planning.