Social work deals with the most vulnerable groups of the population, so it is essential to explore the role that the profession plays during and after crisis situations. We must be aware that even when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the consequences will be felt by the most vulnerable, including adolescents and families. In my master's thesis, I focus on the stories of adolescents and parents during a pandemic. I also pay attention to professionals who do social work with adolescents and families during a pandemic to find out where the space of social work is in the current situation and what a profession can contribute to solving the plight of individuals and groups. I wanted to gain insight into the life of adolescents and their families, to get the information about what they are experiencing and find out how social work can help with this. In the first part, I presented the relevant literature on this topic, and then I conducted research with interviews. The study involved five adolescents, five adolescent parents, and five social workers who work with youths and families in times of crisis.
In research, I have found that individuals experience negative emotions about the current situation, they feel lonely, angry, cramped. Adolescents are affected by social isolation, and by shifting responsibility for transmitting infections to them, making them feel guilty. Parents have difficulty with coordination of obligations, social security concerns in the future. Due to insecurity, adolescents and parents have lost their sense of security, and therefore find it harder to overcome their distress. Adolescents point out that the attitude of teachers towards students is more humane, professionals are kinder and more attentive. Adolescents have more school work to do, and teachers often forget that not everyone lives in a situation where they can work so much, and as a result they do not have the same opportunities for progress. Adolescents also feel that they are forgotten, unseen, because no one talks about them. They want to be heard, understood, but apathy has brought them so far that they do not see meaning in the current life and do not even maintain contact with friends, which makes them suffer from a lack of inclusion, acceptance. Family relationships are bad, which is related to the hardships they face due to the pandemic. There is more arguing, adolescents often feel misunderstood, unaccepted, many do not have a safe environment at home. The plight of families is also related to the socio-economic condition of the family, lack of space, time for themselves, divorce, violence.
Social workers experience the hardships associated with changing their lives, as well as the hardships associated with their work - caring for vulnerable individuals, experiencing feelings of helplessness. The situation thus affects their work, as they have to provide even more support and assistance to vulnerable groups, while at the same time taking care of themselves, their families and their health. It is also more difficult to make contact with adolescents and families, which affects relationships. Professionals find it important that contacts are regular and that there is a conversation between them and users in an open and safe space so that they can talk about their problems. A trusting relationship is important and the concepts of social work can help in these situations. Cooperation agreement, personal contact and relationship, co-creation, authenticity in contacts, safe space, empathy. They especially emphasize that users need to get the feeling that someone cares about them and that this also strengthens their power, which is something that social work can really contribute to in this situation.
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