ABSTRACT
‘Safe Custody Homes’ (Safe Homes) was built as a support centre for vulnerable women and adolescents in different divisional cities in Bangladesh. Social service officers provide professional social work services to the inmates of these Safe Homes. During COVID-19, they faced daunting challenges both at the workplace and the family as well. This qualitative study investigates how social service officers met the urgent needs of the inmates, how they ensured their personal and others’ safety, and challenges the officers confronted. Six in-depth interviews were conducted with social service officers working at different Safe Homes. Themes have been developed based on the qualitative data to fulfil the study objectives. The findings showed that the social service officers initiated some noble measures to deal with the situation created through the sudden crisis of COVID-19. Shared responsibilities of the officers and the staff were instrumental in ensuring the safety of all concerned. Communicating with the inmates and taking them for testing, convincing them to follow the health guidelines, connecting with the higher authorities, and looking after family members were the major challenges for the social service officers. They recommended that increasing interdepartmental collaboration to deal with such a situation could practically be helpful.
