Evaluation of the role of social work discipline in studies carried out during disaster preparation phase

The study aims to evaluate the role of social work discipline in the preparation process, based on the perspectives of social workers working within AFAD regarding the place and importance of social work discipline in the disaster preparation process. Social workers working at AFAD were included in the research, and since the number of social workers in each province was low, Turkey was selected as the study group. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the participants. The data obtained in the research were analyzed with the MAXQDA qualitative data analysis program. The research was conducted with a qualitative method and participants were reached using the snowball sampling technique. The opinions of social workers working at AFAD about the disaster preparation process were taken and the data obtained as a result of the in-depth interviews were interpreted. It is known that social workers have been working within AFAD since 2010. With this study, it is aimed to investigate the role of social work discipline in AFAD, which carries out disaster preparedness studies, and to address the disaster preparedness process from the holistic perspective of the social work discipline. In order to understand the role of the social work discipline, it is necessary to obtain the opinions of social workers working within the institution. As a result of the research, it was found that educational activities were at the forefront in the disaster preparation process, social workers were a part of the educational activities, they reflected their professional perspectives on their work, but although they mostly took a role in the preparation process, they thought that the social work discipline was not given the necessary value and remained a very abstract profession within the institution.