Hospital social workers and mental health: essential roles during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Hospital social workers play a critical role during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined how hospital social workers describe essential roles and responsibilities in mental health care. In response to an exploratory survey, 97% of participants (N = 225) stated that hospital social workers provide essential services and using inductive content analysis, five essential responsibilities of social work practice emerged: (1) counseling, intervention, and support, (2) suicide and crisis intervention, (3) support for families, (4) clinical case management, and (5) interprofessional collaboration and support. We discuss implications for social work practice in mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• essential services
• healthcare
• hospital social work
• mental health

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW) for their leadership, advocacy, and support for social workers in Ontario. We also extend our gratitude to the hospital social workers who worked tirelessly during the pandemic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

No financial support was received for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.