The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on UK older people’s social workers: a mixed-methods study

Justin MacLochlainn; Jill Manthorpe; John Mallett; Susan McGrory; Jermaine Ravalier; Patricia Nicholl; Heike Schroder; Denise Currie; Paula McFadden

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcad139

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on UK older people’s social workers: a mixed-methods study

Justin MacLochlainn, Jill Manthorpe, John Mallett, Susan McGrory, Jermaine Ravalier, Patricia Nicholl, Heike Schroder, Denise Currie, Paula McFadden

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

The social work profession was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the well-being, working conditions and intentions to leave the social work profession among a sample of UK older people’s social workers. This was a cross-sectional mixed methods study analysing data from 426 social workers who worked in older people’s services in the UK at five time points of the pandemic spanning 2020–2022. Data were collected using anonymous online surveys which included both quantitative and qualitative questions. The mental well-being of participants decreased as the pandemic progressed and this decline was associated with intentions to leave the profession. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed two major themes: Practice challenges and Staff well-being. The findings highlight the nature of stressors related to internal related practice demands, and external health and social care service stressors encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and have implications for policy, practice and research in older people’s social work.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3838-3859
Number of pages	22
Journal	British Journal of Social Work
Volume	53
Issue number	8
Early online date	30 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcad139
Publication status	Published - 01 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was funded by the Health and Social Care Research Division (HSC R&D Division) of the Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland (COVID Rapid Response Funding Scheme COM/5603/20), the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust and funding from England’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce-PR-PRU-1217–21002.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s).

Keywords

COVID-19
older people's social workers
retention
well-being
working conditions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health(social science)
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

Access to Document

10.1093/bjsw/bcad139Licence: CC BY-NC

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on UK older people’s social workers: a mixed-methods study
© 2023 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]
Final published version, 705 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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abstract = "The social work profession was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the well-being, working conditions and intentions to leave the social work profession among a sample of UK older people{\textquoteright}s social workers. This was a cross-sectional mixed methods study analysing data from 426 social workers who worked in older people{\textquoteright}s services in the UK at five time points of the pandemic spanning 2020–2022. Data were collected using anonymous online surveys which included both quantitative and qualitative questions. The mental well-being of participants decreased as the pandemic progressed and this decline was associated with intentions to leave the profession. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed two major themes: Practice challenges and Staff well-being. The findings highlight the nature of stressors related to internal related practice demands, and external health and social care service stressors encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and have implications for policy, practice and research in older people{\textquoteright}s social work.",

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The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on UK older people’s social workers: a mixed-methods study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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