This article draws on findings of an international study of social workers’ ethical challenges during COVID-19, based on 607 responses to a qualitative survey. Ethical challenges included the following: maintaining trust, privacy, dignity and service user autonomy in remote relationships; allocating limited resources; balancing rights and needs of different parties; deciding whether to break or bend policies in the interests of service users; and handling emotions and ensuring care of self and colleagues. The article considers regional contrasts, the ‘ethical logistics’ of complex decision-making, the impact of societal inequities, and lessons for social workers and professional practice around the globe.

View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Ethical considerations in social work research Etični razmisleki v raziskovanju v socialnem delu Considerazioni etiche nella ricerca di servizio sociale

The article discusses the continuum between the personal and public roles of families, where two women parent together in Slovenia, against the background of the current marginal position of same-sex families in regard to rights and symbolic status, in claiming the position of same-sex parenting in the context of family models as well as in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement agendas. It briefly outlines the situation in Slovenia in regard to homosexuality, and then moves to discussing the outcomes of the processes and experiences of lesbian mothers that are transgressing the borders of parental and homosexual identities. These outcomes are: "justifying" and demonstrating the "appropriateness" of family life in non-heteronormative families, constructing strategies for claiming a joint parental identity, and building a sense of belonging by forming a community that is both homosexual and parental. The article draws extensively on the lived (motherhood) experiences and stories of families where parents are two female partners and reads them as negotiating a constantly shifting place between a marginal status in the broader society and a conformist character in the perspective of their non-normative sexuality. In the article, it is recognized that same-sex families in Slovenia are entering the political agenda and are thus involved in transforming both contexts-the family and homosexual identities.

Pregledni znanstveni članekSocialno delo, poklic, prežet z etičnimi dilemami, je bilo v času pandemije covid-19 pred velikimi izzivi, saj se je spoprijemalo z novimi načini dela, poglobljenimi stiskami, pomanjkanjem materialnih in človeških virov ipd. O tem so poročale tudi udeleženke mednarodne raziskave, ki je predstavljena v članku. Prepoznanih je bilo šest področij, ki so bila za respondentke osrednja v zvezi z etičnimi izzivi v času pandemije. Na podlagi rezultatov te raziskave so predstavljena priporočila za etično ravnanje socialnih delavk pa tudi za kolektivne usmeritve poklica, podporo organizacij, kjer socialne delavke delujejo, in javno prepoznanje stroke socialnega dela. Predstavljena je tudi preprosta hevristika za ravnanje z etičnimi dilemami, ki je lahko opomnik za premislek o procesih iskanja etičnih odločitev. Avtorica prispevek sklene s pozivom k nujnosti krepitve etične usmerjenosti stroke na individualni, organizacijski in kolektivni ravni.

‘Family’ remains a site of ideological struggles. What constitutes a family and who can become/have/define a family is a matter of ongoing political and other debates and discourses. These become evident in the programmes of political parties, for example, as well as in the agendas in family legislation and social welfare policies, even in the changes in sociological textbooks, and so forth. Families where two male or female partners are parenting together are simultaneously gaining visibility in the public space (and legislation in certain countries) and their children are becoming central in different discursive practices, where their presumed interests are used in argumentations of (mostly) the opponents and advocates of equal rights for all family constellations. A vast research body of studies about lesbian and gay families (begun in the 1970s) contributes to the visibility and understanding of a variety of forms in which families are created. As Malmquist and Zetterqvist Nelson write, it is “important to understand ‘family’ as something that is continuously performed – ‘doing family’ – rather than a specific structure – “the family”.” Weeks, Heaphy, and Donovan claim that it is exactly non-heterosexuals who are at the forefront of wider changes to family life, and Haimes and Weiner, for example, write how non-heteronormative family models present an important challenge to the heteronormative model.