The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the work practices of social workers in Albania. An empirical research with survey and semi-structured interviews

The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic has had problematic implications for public and private public-facing services and has placed social workers on the front lines. Numerous research projects on social services in Italy during the pandemic describe the disorientation of social workers in the various dimensions of their work. In particular, the study by Sanfelici et al (2020) describes environmental disorientation, relational disorientation, instrumental displacement and organisational disorientation. After having analysed the characteristics and transformations of social services in Albania through an Erasmus Plus European Project entitled TOWARDS INCREASED AWARENESS, RESPONSIBILITY AND SHARED QUALITY IN SOCIAL WORK, which ended in 2021 and whose final phase was carried out during the pandemic, we thought it appropriate to study and highlight the pandemic’s impact on the methods and rhythms of work of social workers in Albania by specifically investigating the dimensions identified by Sanfelici et al (2020). Since empirical studies on social workers in Albania are scarce, we carried out research that could bring together the views of members of this profession: we did so by means of a questionnaire survey administered by face-to-face interview to 70 social workers throughout Albania and semi-structured interviews with some social workers who also participated in the survey.