‘It made me remember what social work is’: Social workers’ experiences of working with displaced populations in hotels in Israel during wartime

Abstract Social work responses following communal disasters involve operating in complex and often stressful settings. This is especially evident in a shared reality. When a disaster occurs in the social workers’ own country, practitioners navigate between their roles as social workers and as citizens and family members who are also exposed to the disaster. Based on interviews with 43 social workers, this study explores practitioners’ experiences of working with displaced Israelis living in hotels in the first few months following the October 7th terror attack. Working in the hotel’s dynamic, informal, home-like setting enabled the social workers to reconnect with and feel proud of what they viewed as ‘real’ social work, discover new capabilities, find meaning and emotional rewards and, thus, feel somewhat protected from the ongoing war. Yet, encountering trauma and navigating the ‘bipolar’ reality between the hotel, on the one hand, and the ‘outside’ world, their ‘routine’ job, and their home life, on the other hand, was challenging and resulted in stress and depressive symptoms. This study discusses the aspects of working in a shared reality of national war, especially when the routine job is put ‘on hold’. It concludes with recommendations for social work supervision during communal disasters.