SOCIAL SERVICES IN THE COMMUNITY IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY

RESEARCH REPORT

Abstract

The restrictive measures introduced in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic situation affected greatly the functioning of social services which offer hourly support as their main mode of provision is via individual and group meetings with people – mostly in the social care centers or, in particular cases, at the homes of the clients. The immediate contact via vis-à-vis meetings accounts for more the 50 % of the working time. Theses social care centers offer, in accordance with the needs of children or their parents, information services, advocacy, consultancy, psychological support, psycho-social assistance, school support, therapeutic activities. Visits to these centers were banned, following the relevant letters sent out by central and local authorities. It was somewhat unclear how they re-organized their functioning – thus, this issue was worthy of research, especially having in mind the fact that this particular mode of service provision will have to stay in place in the future as well.

The current report presents the findings of a research on the challenges to social care for children and families at risk during state of emergency, conducted by means of an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the managers of social services for children and families at risk. The methodology was developed by a team of experts from the Social Pedagogy and Social Work Department at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and the Social Activities and Practice Institute. The objective of the research is to study the current social care practice and to outline possible recommendations for the adaptation of social care to a continuing future situation of social distancing. The study examines the attitude of the experts to the pandemic crisis and its impact over their work; the ways of coping with the restrictive situation; the introduced new practices; the suggested modifications in the functioning mode with a view to taking into consideration the future social care work under pandemic conditions.