‘Brick’ or ‘Bridge’? – The roles and functions of Chinese social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Tang, NingNingTangDonghang ZhangFei SunCharles Tong-Lit Leung2025-09-042025-09-042023-11-07https://dspace.usj.edu.mo/handle/123456789/657310.1177/00208728231208005 The COVID-19 pandemic has been shaping Chinese social workers to contribute to public health. To study the details, this article aims to explore the roles of social workers during the pandemic in China’s mainland and how social workers fulfilled their roles. The study used a cross-sectional design with a convergent parallel-mixed methodology. Its findings provide another piece of evidence demonstrating the functions of social work practitioners during a health crisis worldwide. However, the ambiguities of the social work profession in addressing public health emergencies were also unveiled in the case of China. ChinaCOVID-19 pandemicprofessional developmentpublic healthroles and functionssocial work‘Brick’ or ‘Bridge’? – The roles and functions of Chinese social workers during the COVID-19 pandemictext::journal::journal article