Online Social Work: practice and practitioners

The ISUSW 21 primarily targets M.S.W. students, and Ph.D. students may enroll upon the acceptance by the host university. The ISUSW provides participants from various countries with a unique opportunity to meet and work together during an intensive ten-day course. It has the goal of enhancing international collaboration through providing opportunities for social work scholars and students to analyze and reflect upon the global issues and processes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that affect social workers’ everyday practice at the international, national, and local levels.

Currently, COVID-19 has pushed and facilitated many social workers to move their services and practice to virtual platforms. Informed by the values of human development and diversity, the ISUSW 21 program aims to explore a deeper understanding of the online social work approach with a focus on three key areas: (a) the main features, possibilities, and challenges of online social work; (b) social work practitioners’ experiences of conducting intervention online; (c) field-specific issues related to online social work practice. Participants should be able to discover new ideas and practices and critically reflect upon these issues and their relevance for their own professional study and practice.