Adnan Drndić, social worker with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Tuzla, helps people in a specific way during the coronavirus pandemic. He has launched a Facebook page where he provides free advice to people in need from all over the world.
He has been working professionally in the field of social work for ten years. Adnan is innovative by nature, and has always thought outside the box, which has proven to be a resource and potential in solving citizens’ problems. Adnan is trained to work as an independent expert/consultant in the field of social work and social policy and to give qualified diagnoses. His expertise, in addition to advisory, is the prevention of human trafficking and protection of children from violence and various forms of exploitation, researcher, lobbyist, animator of social events. Through the non-governmental sector, he has significantly contributed to the development of the Day Care Center for children at risk throughout BiH.
The idea of the availability of a social worker electronically (online) was “born” long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through practical experience in working with people, he noticed that for a large number of our citizens who are in a state of need, going to the competent institution for advice or information is an unnecessary financial expense. Such families borrow money for transportation to come e.g., to the Center for Social Work and take the request to apply/ask for help or just informed themselves about their rights. On the other hand, you have an “army” of economically stable families and individuals who find themselves in a state of social need due to disturbed family relations, problems with children, addiction, problems after divorce, violence, but do not want to go to the institution and seek help. Such families as well as their problems remain invisible to the social protection system.
The Facebook page was generally created as a result of examining the needs of the population for the online service, with the aim of providing information and useful advice to citizens completely free of charge.
An additional motive for launching the page was given after restrictions were imposed on the COVID-19 pandemic, where everyone, not just people in a state of social need, were literally imprisoned and institutions were operating in a limited way/working hours. A lot of people lost their jobs, a lot of people were in need, and as a human being, he had a need to help those people. That is what prompted him to publish the Facebook page “Socijalni radnik – 24Online” and offer counseling services to all citizens. “We have entered the ‘New Age’, an age of technology where gradually and imperceptibly much of our daily functioning has shifted online, from banking and trade to ordering food and medicine. Social work as an activity and science should follow this trend as well.”
Most clients have a wide range of problems, in rare cases only one problem, since one problem generates another.
A large number of requests for material assistance was recorded, such as the purchase of food or medicine, school supplies, financing of accommodation, etc. Unfortunately, inquiries related to marital problems and remediation of consequences after the divorce process, seeing and supporting children dominate. After that, there are inquiries related to procedures and the possibility of exercising rights in the field of social and health care, to simple problems of a personal nature. Most often, clients are young spouses and we recorded a large number of young people who divorce after a year or two of marriage or enter into common law marriage and have children. After a short period of living together, unfortunately, emotional immaturity and existential problems come to the surface, because most of them are young people without permanent employment…
“Before the Facebook page, such people, in order to get advice or information, had to go to an institution or pay lawyers. Now they can get it for free by staying at home, on the Facebook page Social Worker – 24Online. In this way, people in need can save money, we work on relieving the competent institutions, because a large number of users come to the institution every day just to ask “something”. On the other hand, we reduce the movement of the population and thus contribute to the prevention of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. We do not have procedures that users have to comply when exercising rights in the field of social protection. We do not deal with social protection, but exclusively with social work, which is much broader. We approach each case professionally in accordance with the ethical code of our professions, where confidentiality is guaranteed.”
What is the procedure of providing online assistance?
The person contacts the FB page, Instagram page or e-mail (socijalniradnik24online@gmail.com) with an inquiry, with a brief description of the situation (the more information about the problem, the easier it will be for us to find a solution/provide advice). Based on the provided information, the person, i.e., the client receives advice or information. If the case is complex, then a series of conversations are conducted with the same client, within which the client receives assignments that he/she needs to do in order to initiate a certain process or exercise the requested right. The client’s feedback on the page that he/she has successfully solved his/her problem and that we have helped him/her is considered a completed case. Once the case is over, clients are given the option to report back, whenever they need to.
“The work methodology we use is innovative because we do not want to create people dependent on our help. My task as a consultant is not only to provide information, but also to strengthen and educate clients through conversations, to mobilize their inner self-help forces. In this way, the client does not only solve his/her problem, but he/she is educated and empowered, and he/she is able to share the acquired knowledge. We constantly emphasize that the client solved his/her problem himself/herself, we are just supporting them along the way. The online concept is much cheaper, far broader and more accessible, and the Socijalni radnik – 24Online page has the character of a reform and partly advocacy mission, confirming the hypotheses about the enormous need to have social work services online”.
The family is the basic unit of society from which all good and bad start, which is the foundation of building every personality, a place of salvation, first steps and smiles of your loved ones… but it can also be a “prison” or the scariest place to live and grow up. The family is one of the most important agents of socialization and therefore is a fertile ground for the development of various forms of violence in all relations. It is evident that, at the level of the family itself, there are many risk factors, and the pandemic itself contributes negatively because it stimulates their development and the frequency of violent behaviors within the family.
If we add to that the socio-pathological forms of behavior such as alcoholism, drug addiction or gambling, we get “hell” in the family, which the most vulnerable members, children and women, go through. This is an extensive topic, where a large number of women suffer domestic violence because they are economically dependent on their husbands or have nowhere to go, and they are often blackmailed that they will lose their children if they leave the family. Such women are a special category that our system has to protect! Solving this problem requires a systematic approach and active participation of all sectors with strict implementation of legislation and existing protocols. The “dark number” of such cases is huge and invisible to the system, because they have never been reported and recorded.
“The pandemic has certainly left consequences on the social sector, many have lost their jobs, the basic source of income, the rows in front of social services are long, which greatly complicates the already burdened social protection system in BiH. On the other hand, situations such as pandemic and similar problems in society are an opportunity for the social sector to show itself, stand out from other sectors and shine with concrete answers to the current needs of the population. In that way, at a given moment, the state should show its strength. Citizens need to know that state and system will provide them with protection and a certain degree of social security.
In any case, the social sector is facing a great challenge, for which I hope that concrete steps will be found at higher instances of our executive government. Socijalni radnik – 24Online is only a small step forward in providing access to information on rights, which certainly, in addition to counseling, also plays a role in relieving the competent social services, at least when it comes to counseling services.”
The number of inquiries from all over the world is growing every day, especially from the region.
In this regard, he urges all citizens to take care of their mental health, which is a rather neglected component of daily functioning in our country, and to be free to contact the Facebook page “Socijalni radnik – 24Online” and seek advice and support. It is also important to know that in general, people, wherever they live, even in stable countries with powerful social systems, face the same and similar challenges on the way to preserving their family and its integrity.
