Abstract:
Holistic care is recognized as an enduring practice among patients. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, this practice method has been used extensively to
improve the well-being of patients and their families. Holistic care
management is essentially a combination of different disciplinary approaches
for total patient care. In Sri Lanka, frontline health professionals and military
personnel have led much of the pandemic response. The satisfactory pandemic
control status is thus focused on both sectors in Sri Lanka. However,
individual concern and holistic care for people infected with COVID-19 and
their families were not pursued due to the country's lack of human and other
resources. Consequently, infected individuals and families have access to
health care and do not meet the other social, psychological, and physical needs
associated with the disease. As a result, the burden of the disease has grown
and multiplied by other factors, making infected individuals and their
members more vulnerable to the pandemic. The need for comprehensive care
for those infected with COVID-19 has been neglected and pushed to manage
the consequences individually. However, the cases of many countries that face
the same challenge but with different magnitudes were different, especially
the Indian approach to Covid 19 involved holistic care management allowing social work practitioners. This study, therefore, focused on the holistic
approach to care during the pandemic and its aftermath. In addition, this study
explored the possibilities for social workers in healthcare facilities. The study's
methodology used primary and secondary data, and the international literature
on medical social work and health care during the pandemic was employed
extensively in this study. Additionally, two social work instructors employed
in the General Hospital Colombo and five consultant doctors in the Emergency
and Medical care unit of the Kandy General Hospital and Colombo General
Hospital were interviewed. The thematic analysis was used to analyze the
primary data. According to the study's findings, the holistic care approach with
Covid 19 infected persons was minimally applied, and social workers were
not involved in the holistic care except for a few psychiatric social workers.
The practice of online medical social work, the collaborative approach, and
the multidisciplinary aspect of healthcare were not identified and prioritized
during the pandemic.
