COVID-19: Social Work Responds

When you first meet someone, you introduce yourself. I am Melissa Thompson, Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work at Dominican University. I am delighted you found this blog. Why?

Because it's important and it has the goal of adding important knowledge to social work at a perilous time. Graduate students taking Social Work and Health will be researching and writing for this blog throughout the semester. We agreed that during times of crisis, the United States has a history of amplifying discrimination against marginalized, vulnerable and oppressed groups and we are seeing so many examples of this each day.

The purpose of this blog it to raise awareness of the impact OVID-19 has had on the groups and communities social workers serve and the role social work can play in mitigating the impacts of this global pandemic. Using technology for health outcomes is nothing new, but for many students, onsite field placements are a challenge to find. Since the pandemic limits social workers abilities to reach decision makers and clients alike, we wondered, "How do we get important information like this out to those who need it?"

And that is how the COVID-19: Social Work Responds blog was born.

We appreciate any comments you'd like to share with our authors and would be so humbled if you could share this important information with others.

Many thanks!

Professor Melissa Thompson

School of Social Work

Dominican University

Comments

Corona Here, Corona There, Corona Everywhere: Suicide Rates Increasing due to CORONA VIRUS

Can COVID-19 Increase the Rate of Suicide? I know COVID-19 pandemic has been a peculiar experience for all of us. First, we heard about the rising rates of COVID cases in other countries. Then, a particular individual who leads this country said that we had nothing to worry about, “claiming the virus was like a flu and would disappear miraculously” (Kaczynski, 2020). Soon after these statements the corona virus arrived in Chicago, IL, quickly spread throughout the country, and became the epidemic that we now know as COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us know people who have contracted the virus, and some of us may even know individuals who have died from the virus. If you contract this infectious virus it could be a horrific experience, but did you know the Corona Virus isn’t only going to affect people’s physical health? According to Dr. Nandini Chakraborty, “a study looking at the emotional indicators in a group of Weibo users before and after the declaration of COVID‐19 on January, 20...

Can we Go Back to School Now? A Plea Schools Across the World Never Thought They’d Hear

Travel backwards in time: it’s March, and the world stops for two weeks. We think this new virus, COVID, will be a momentary lapse in our normal lives. Maybe we even get selfishly excited: we can work from home! I can do Zoom calls in my pajamas, take breaks for Instagram if I need to. It doesn’t feel like this is going to be a huge problem, and we hope for the best. Flash forward: it’s mid-summer, and schools are making the tough decision about what to do for the upcoming school year. Somehow, the virus is still impacting hundreds of thousands of people, and we didn’t see this coming. Can kids learn from home? Can teachers teach remotely? The answer would appear to be “yes,” but at what cost? First, it is important to recognize that many responses to COVID and how to re-adjust to living amidst a global pandemic come from a place of privilege. How people view the virus, how leaders decide to address the pandemic, and how schools choose to adapt is often...

Tackling Homelessness and the COVID-19 Pandemic

In order to address how the homeless population has been impacted by the virus , I believe it is first beneficial to identify the federal definition. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (2012) the Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently changed their definition of homelessness. Under the new definition, an individual experiencing homeless is defined as “An individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, which includes a primary nighttime residence of: [a] place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, or [a] publicly or privately operated shelter or transitional housing, including a hotel or motel paid for by government or charitable organizations, a person is considered homeless if he or she is being discharged from an institution where he or she has been a resident for 90 days or less and the person res...

C0VID-19: Social Work Responds

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