Covid 19 Pandemic and Holistic Care Provision in Sri Lanka - Recognition of Social Work Intervention.

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.