Intervenir en tiempos de pandemia. Adaptaciones metodológicas y condiciones laborales en el “Programa Familias”

The programa Familias is the most important public policy to combat poverty in the Chilean State. The psychosocial and socio-labor accompaniment by the Apoyos Familiares Integrales is a crucial part of their intervention methodology, based on visits to the homes of the user families. Due to the crisis unleashed by the COVID19 pandemic, the face to face accompaniment had to be modified by a telephone accompaniment, in a methodological adaptation effort that seeks to give continuity to the intervention of the programa Familias. Likewise, the health emergency evidenced the challenging working conditions in which the professionals in charge of this intervention work and the fragility of government strategies to overcome poverty. Based on the analysis of 31 interviews carried out whit professionals who work in this public policy at the municipal level, during the first months of the pandemic, we explore the consequences of the methodological adaptation, its limitations, and the effects of teleworking on the Apoyos Familiares Integrales and on the intervention itself.