Emerging opportunities for relationship-based social work? Finnish social workers’ reflections on utilising digital environments during two phases of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Social work focuses on the social relationships, which the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact. The article explores Finnish social workers’ reflections on utilising digital environments in client relationships during the pandemic. The article is framed by relationship-based social work. The data consist of two datasets that together form a continuum: Finnish social workers’ personal diaries from mid-March to the end of May 2020, and interviews with 17 diary writers conducted in April and May 2021. The research questions are: What kind of challenges related to relationships can be identified in the early phase of the pandemic? What were the facilitators for conducting relationships as the pandemic continues? What kind of practice began to emerge as the pandemic proved to be long-standing? The diaries and interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: relationships drifting into danger, reconstitution of relationships and emerging opportunity for relationship-based social work. The results demonstrate serious challenges, but also new opportunities, as well as temporal variation and contextual change related to relationship-based social work during the pandemic.