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Through the lens of the theory of planned behavior, this article explores how social workers adapt to a new situation due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three focus group sessions were conducted with 23 social workers from child and youth, family, and elderly services in Hong Kong. Three major themes were generated: (1) repositioning the social work profession, (2) renegotiating contracts with funders, and (3) exploring novel intervention methods. Implications of the findings are discussed. To ensure social workers can respond effectively in crises, an evolving nature of the profession is advocated to enshrine its spirit to serve.

An evaluation of the role played by the social work profession during the outbreak of COVID-19 is necessary. Although social workers have made efforts to address people’s needs during the pandemic, it is worth examining the role they have played in safeguarding health equality. Focusing on the case of Hong Kong, we found that the profession was generally ill-prepared for the outbreak, and in particular, for confronting the attendant social inequalities. We identified three possible reasons for these findings: 1) non-governmental organizations were caught off-guard by the outbreak, 2) there was no clearly articulated intervention agenda to inform practitioners of the roles they should play in such a large-scale crisis, and 3) having become more formalized and standardized, social work services may have become less flexible in responding to emerging community needs. We conclude this article by suggesting three directions that could allow the profession to better pursue its mission during large-scale crises.

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