This is the first comprehensive book that provides accessible, international knowledge for practitioners, students and academics about social work in health emergencies and spans fields of practice across world regions with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Divided into three sections:

• Regional, Historical and Social Work Perspectives takes a journey through world regions during the first six months of the pandemic as it unfolded, explores the lessons found in the history of pandemics and situates public health social work practice in the values of the profession. Situating the diversity of challenges and opportunities in context, in turn, influences current and future social work practice.

• Social Work Practice, Issues and Responses explores social work practice innovations and responses across eleven key practice fields. International authors feature social work responses during the COVID-19 health emergency from different regions of the world.

• Preparing for the Future analyses broader concepts, innovations and the implications for future practices as social work enters a new era of service delivery. The 20 chapters explore the convergence of pandemic, politics and planet which is critiqued within a framework of the profession’s ethics and values of human dignity, human rights and social justice. Social work’s place in public health is firmly situated and built on the premise that the value social work brings to the table deserves recognition and should be documented to inform the development of the profession and future practice and how social work must carry lessons forward to prepare for the next pandemic.

The book is relevant to a wide range of audiences, including practitioners, educators and students in social work, human services, international development and public health, as well as policy makers and researchers.