 Using a Science Literary Lens to Conceptualize Anxiety Around COVID-19: Strategies for Human Services Professionals

Abstract

Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, Human Services Professionals (HSPs) are faced with clients experiencing increased anxiety. HSPs again must broaden their scope of competency to approach this novel, natural phenomenon. Science literacy is the understanding and application of scientific knowledge toward decisions and sensemaking. Although science literacy has many facets, one area, Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs), prioritizes individuals’ funds of knowledge to engage with new phenomena such as COVID-19. This paper describes the role of HSPs responding to COVID-19; provides a conceptual framework through the Ecological Systems Theory, which centers on clients and science literacy; and proposes an integration of science concepts with HSPs’ work. Finally, this paper ends with a vignette collection offering CCCs and resource pathways HSPs can utilize with their clients.