SOCIAL WORK WITH CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The entire world faced a crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The social impacts of the pandemic were severe, the movement of people was strictly limited, and schools, day care centres, and youth centres were closed. This affected social workers working with children and youth activities. The goal of this article is to analyse the memories of social workers working with children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lithuania. In order to explore the memories of social workers, a qualitative research methodology was used, and non-probability purposive sampling was applied for finding research participants. In-depth interviews were used for data collection, with each research participant facing one main question: describe your everyday activities during the pandemic. Qualitative content data analysis was applied. Three categories were formulated and are presented in the article: challenges of social work during the pandemic; positive factors of work during the pandemic; and ways of working during the pandemic. These were followed by seventeen subcategories: adaptation to restrictions; organizational work; teaching; cooperation with other institutions; filming; IT knowledge; psychological aspects; activeness and tension at work; spending more time together; improved competencies; closer communication with other institutions; closer communication among social workers; courses and seminars; volunteers; IT programmes; various types of consultations; and creativity. The challenges and positive aspects revealed show that social workers looked for ways to adapt to new working conditions and were ready to overcome challenges in order to help children and youth during the pandemic.