How the war in Ukraine will impact on social work in the UK

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 3 March, 2022

The crisis in Ukraine will affect the UK in a number of ways. It will contribute to soaring food and fuel prices, we will see displaced people and families arriving on these shores and the threat of world war is on everyone’s minds which causes uncertainty about the future.

Although we live in a democracy, at times like this our individual autonomy feels as though it has been stripped away and we become bystanders watching world leaders make decisions that impact on us all.

People can become divided due to opposing political views and those who normally do not have an opinion or an interest in politics suddenly have a lot to say. Frequently their standpoints are ill-informed and controversial, which can cause greater division and tension between individuals.

This in turn can weaken the infrastructure of our society. We need to stand strong together against those who want to challenge democracy and we must continue to advocate for human rights, freedom of speech, and social mobility.

With Ukraine’s people standing strong against Russia’s demands and defending their nation, we owe it to them to stand in solidarity. As Sophia Gaston, director of the Foreign Policy Group think tank reminds us, by defending their interests we are also defending our own.

Conflict resolution

The International Federation of Social Workers places great responsibility on social workers to take a primary role in resolving the conflict and finding alternative coping strategies such as creating safe spaces for conflict resolution to take place, enabling active listening and effective communication between opposing parties, building confidence to enable individuals to overcome insecurities and recognise their resilience using peaceful protests to establish change in social structures.

The British Association of Social Workers urges the UK government to work with other world leaders to find resolution to the conflict and ensure that Ukrainian people are provided with humanitarian relief.

BASW members are also encouraged to identify individuals with links to Ukraine and Russia to ensure they are supported holistically to overcome trauma caused by the current conflict.

Rights

Social workers know the value of education, promoting equality amongst society and tackling barriers that infringe on an individuals’ capacity to achieve social mobility and self-actualisation.

These values are being impacted on by Putin’s war on Ukraine. Social workers need to advocate for people’s rights and support Ukrainian refugees in whatever ways are practicable.

This will include challenging fascist opinions and help individuals access reliable information to inform their opinion on displaced refugees.

Being able to challenge negative opinions is critical in social work to ensure that individuals are supported to evolve their thinking patterns.

This impacts on how wider society functions and improves the outcomes of society generally. Social workers must be positive role models, who promote equality and inspire service users to utilise their resources to ensure they achieve the best outcomes.

Mental health

Social workers must also be mindful of the impact of war on the mental health and wellbeing of individuals. During uncertain times, focus needs to be on mindfulness and revisiting crisis plans to ensure that wellbeing is promoted and resilience built upon to reduce the likelihood of people being detrimentally affected by the world crisis.

It is also important that social workers facilitate critical debates and create a safe space where people can share their political views to enable professionals to promote critical thinking and identify where people might have discriminatory views that need challenging.

We can control the feelings we attach to displaced people. We can control how we approach supporting them to overcome their trauma and integrate into new communities and we can control how supported we make refugees feel.

We can also have a positive influence on how individuals are supported in a strengths-based way to overcome the trauma inflicted as a consequence of the war.

Finally, while it is important to be up-to-date with what is happening around the world, especially during times of international conflict, it is always vital to remember that negative news can detrimentally impact on our wellbeing.

If we exposed ourself to all the different news sources constantly, we would not be leaving any time for our focus to be on anything else. Our productivity and passion to achieve daily goals could be diminished and this would not be beneficial for us.

Michaela Ogilvie is a mental health social worker