PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS AND SUPPORT DEMAND OF SOCIAL WORKERS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN VIETNAM

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on all aspects of social life, on the spiritual life of all social classes, thereby giving rise to the need for mental health care and support. This study was conducted on 171 social workers in public social institutions in Vietnam to investigate their psychological stress, influencing factors as well as their need for psychological support. Through using the DASS-42 scale and the scale designed by the research team, the survey results showed that 95.3% have psychological stress at different levels: 14% have mild stress, 32.7 % moderate, 37.4% severe, 11.1% very severe. The factors: job characteristics, working conditions, professional capacity, fear of disease and psychological support can explain 42.7% of the psychological stress of social workers. 39.8% of social workers said they needed psychological support. Organizations and societies need to pay attention to and deploy psychological support activities to take care of mental health in general and psychological stress in particular for social workers.