Social workers needed in COVID-19 times

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a call for greater emphasis to be given to the placement of social workers in schools for the start of the new academic year.

Additionally, says President of the Barbados Association of Professional Social Workers (BAPSW) Sharon-Rose Gittens, increased staff and resources are needed to adequately deal with new challenges that have arisen as a result of the pandemic.

And she has called for Prime Minister Mia Mottley and other stakeholders to dialogue with the association’s members before students head back to the classroom on September 21.

“I am hoping very strongly, as we try to go into the new school term, that greater emphasis is really placed on having our social workers in schools to connect what is happening within the home environment and the school environment. The social worker will not just be looking at what they lack in terms of education, but where services are needed that can be provided to that family,” Gittens told Barbados TODAY.

“I want to emphasise that even before COVID, the issue of bullying was always being brought up, which occurs in schools but bullying does not start and stop. There is no discussion for us on bullying without a discussion about domestic violence, without a discussion in terms of what is taking place in a person’s home – both victim and perpetrator.

“So, as we prepare for school, I think honestly we need . . .  greater collaboration with school, home and the wider community and resources in society . . . to reduce the amount of recidivism,” she added. “We are definitely looking forward to greater partnership, even with the psychologists.”

The association comprises a diverse group of social workers in both the private and public sector. However, Gittens explained that the last few months have been “difficult and challenging”, especially with limited resources.

“We would have been trained in certain areas but there is room for further training, because here we have a pandemic with new areas, new persons coming up, new vulnerabilities,” she said, adding that clients were now facing unprecedented challenges.

“The greatest one being that persons have become unemployed and…clearly have been very dependent on services. We have been responding to vulnerabilities such as with the elderly, women and children, the disabled – the key vulnerable persons you generally see in social work,” she said.

“Now, you have a group of persons who have suddenly become unemployed and unemployable because of COVID-19 and for whom we will say it’s traumatic because it is a new group – the new vulnerable group, the new poor.”

Gittens said there was also a need for social workers to be placed in nontraditional areas.

“COVID-19 has brought that out. So we need a social worker at like Light and Power, at Barbados Water Authority, at National Housing. Everywhere there is an issue pertaining to an individual, a social worker should be planted there. It would help,” she said.

The BAPSW stressed that in order for that to happen, more professionals would have to be employed.

“In terms of the social worker now, the biggest fear is burnout. The biggest challenge is being burnt out and then even switching the profession. The intake at UWI has dwindled tremendously as compared to other courses or programmes being offered there and I think it is time that we offer clinical social work at a Masters level, which would help,” she added.

As such, Gittens is hoping that the association can secure an audience with Prime Minister Mottley and other relevant Ministry officials for discussions on the way forward.

“The request is across the board, not just a particular group of social workers. So she [the Prime Minister] may have engaged with specific persons but I am talking about the social worker in the psychiatric hospital, the social worker in the geriatric hospitals and the national disabilities unit, social workers both in public and private entities that out here just keep fighting,” Gittens said.
(fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb)