Trust As a Cornerstone of High-Quality Social Work amid Geopolitical and Social Threats

The rise of right-wing populism threatens social tolerance, human rights, and universal welfare services (Noble & Ottmann, 2020). This impacts social work by potentially denying support to vulnerable individuals based on populist criteria like ethnicity or social status. To safeguard human rights, social workers must counter these movements by promoting democracy, ensuring equal access to support, and rejecting divisive narratives. While political crises may limit their autonomy, social workers must continue serving vulnerable populations and challenge policies that neglect human rights, such as those affecting irregular migrants.

Purpose of the research: To identify the prerequisites for enabling constructive and autonomous decision-making by social workers during crises and to examine the outcomes of such autonomous actions.

Methods and study design: The research adopts an innovative methodological approach, viewing the personal social service (PSS) system as a social space. Qualitative methods were employed, including 8 focus groups (FG) and the design of 8 ecomaps.

Findings: FG participants identified "trust" and a "sense of community" as key prerequisites for enabling context-relevant, creative, and autonomous actions. Trust was crucial in their interactions with both organizational leaders and other service providers (not from SW field) who joined the SW field to assist new service users, such as war refugees. These concepts were also reflected in the ekomaps.

Conclusions and Implications: Mutual trust among social workers, their leaders, and other professionals during crises enabled autonomous and innovative decision-making beyond the formal boundaries of their professional codes. Trust among social workers, service users, and other professionals serves as the "signature" of democracy, symbolizing agreement, support, and a shared commitment to universal human rights.

Research “Transformation of the social services system by increasing its resilience to external threats” is funded by the Lithuanian Research Council, contract No. S-VIS-23-11