A Study On The Path Of Social Workers Using Social Media To Provide Services In The Context Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

At the beginning of the New Year 2020,a sudden epidemic spread rapidly across the whole of China.The rapid spread of the epidemic,its widespread impact and the difficulty of its prevention and control made it the most serious public health emergency in China’s history.Due to the limitations of the epidemic prevention and control measures,the "face-to-face" service between social workers and clients was broken,and online services,which replaced physical space with virtual space,became the most important way for social workers to help prevent and control the epidemic.In the process of providing online services,social media,with its convenience,immediacy and large number of users,has become the most effective platform for social workers to disseminate information and provide related services,playing an irreplaceable role.In this paper,the author has used literature research and participant observation to review the local online anti-epidemic service projects that he has been involved in,as well as several other representative online anti-epidemic service projects.In particular,this paper firstly introduces the local online service platform in Shaanxi Province,which I participated in,and summarises the whole process from its construction to its operation to its final closure,as well as its shortcomings;secondly,it also summarises other two typical online service platforms,including the local one in Wuhan and those that have extended their online services to overseas.Finally,the author analyses the overall advantages of social workers’ participation in epidemic prevention and control work,and summarises the commonalities and specificities of the service models of the online service platforms listed in the article,so as to summarise the complete path of how social workers can make good use of social media to carry out online services at different stages of the epidemic’s development.Based on the rapid development of Internet technology,social workers have used social media such as Tencent meetings,We Chat groups,public number platforms and Sina Weibo to provide diverse service contents such as graphics and images,realising one-way and two-way interactions with clients and integrating the advantages of social work professional services with social media,playing an irreplaceable role during the Covid-19 epidemic.Although Internet technology has reshaped social work services in new forms and contents,its shortcomings still need to be re-examined and reshaped.Therefore,the author concludes his article with suggestions for the future development of online social work services at three levels: micro,meso and macro.