abstract: 'Public Policy Relevance Statement In the wake of COVID-19 and shift to

  remote platforms, little is known about the telehealth implementation

  experiences of social service providers who work with Latinx immigrants,

  an underserved group with limited accessibility to reliable internet or

  computers. Findings suggest that the lack of a clear and coordinated

  federal, local, or organizational response led social service providers

  to work beyond the scope of their routine duties to navigate unreliable

  remote platforms to meet the rising needs of their Latinx immigrant

  clients, which impacted work-related stress and satisfaction. The urgent

  development of more equitable and accessible models of telehealth is

  critical in the face of exacerbating disparities in the health and

  social consequences of COVID-19 among Latinx immigrants.

  The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered social service provision with

  significant public health implications as social services often target

  society''s most vulnerable with preventative health services addressing

  social determinants of health. Social service providers serve as crucial

  linkages to services for low-income Latinx immigrants who face

  substantial barriers to health and social care. However, little is known

  regarding how social service providers working with Latinx immigrants

  navigated service delivery and the rapid transition to telehealth during

  the COVID-19 pandemic. This mixed-methods (QUAL-quant; capitalization

  denotes primacy) study used survey data collected from April 2020 to

  October 2020 with Latinx immigrant serving as social service providers

  in the Maryland-Washington, DC, region. Social ecological theory guided

  the analysis of narrative data and the integration of quantitative data

  with qualitative themes. Participants (N = 41) were majority women

  (85.4\%), identified as Latinx (48.6\%) and elucidated themes related to

  their transition to telehealth, including adjusting from in-person to

  telehealth, barriers to telehealth implementation, impact on quality of

  services, working to prevent clients'' disconnection to social services,

  and work-related stress and satisfaction. Through the firsthand

  experiences of frontline social service providers, results reveal

  conditions of scarcity endemic in social services for Latinx immigrants

  that preexisted the pandemic and became further constrained during a

  time of heightened health and social need. Further, critical insights

  regarding the use of remote modalities with vulnerable populations

  (language minorities and immigrants) can be instructive in the

  development of improved and accessible telehealth and remote programming

  and services for Latinx immigrants.'
affiliation: 'Negi, NJ (Corresponding Author), Univ Maryland, Sch Social Work, 525
  West Redwood St, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA.

  Negi, Nalini Junko; Siegel, Jennifer L., Univ Maryland, Sch Social Work, 525 West
  Redwood St, Baltimore, MD 21201 USA.'
author: Negi, Nalini Junko and Siegel, Jennifer L.
author-email: nnegi@ssw.umaryland.edu
author_list:
- family: Negi
  given: Nalini Junko
- family: Siegel
  given: Jennifer L.
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1037/ort0000626
earlyaccessdate: APR 2022
eissn: 1939-0025
files: []
issn: 0002-9432
journal: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY
keywords: telehealth; Latinx; immigrants; social services; COVID-19
keywords-plus: HEALTH; STRESS; WORK
language: English
number: '4'
number-of-cited-references: '61'
pages: 463-473
papis_id: 2b87079b2cbf38ac809a052d23b0134d
ref: Negi2022socialservice
times-cited: '1'
title: Social Service Providers Navigating the Rapid Transition to Telehealth With
  Latinx Immigrants During the COVID-19 Pandemic
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000787978200001
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '4'
volume: '92'
web-of-science-categories: Psychiatry; Social Work
year: '2022'