Social Casework as a Method of Social Work

1. Social Casework as a Method of Social Work Dr. Jaimon Varghese

2. 1. Social Casework as a Method of Social Work 1. Introduction to Social Work Methods 2. History and Development of Social Case Work in UK, USA and India 3. Philosophical assumptions and values of case work as a method 4. Concept, Definitions, and knowledge base for Social Case Work 5. Components of Case Work – Person, Problem, Place and Process Method 1: Social Casework

3. History of Social Case work in USA

4. Industrial Growth led to migration During the early 1800s, most people lived in small communities and farming was the primary livelihood.

5. Two attempt to respond to social need that developed during the later part of 1800s were The Charity Organization Societies and The Settlement Movement.

6. CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETIES in USA The COS movement was introduced by- Rev. Stephen Humphreys Gurteen and • T. Guilford Smith, a young successful business man and a parishioner at St. Mary’s Church. • They were greatly concerned about the destitution in USA

7. They made a plan along with their friends. • The plan was how to increase the private charities to improve the condition of poor people. • And as a part of plan, Rev. Gurteentraveled to England and spent the summer of 1877 learning about the London Charity Organization Society. 

8. On his return, the two men drew up plans to adopt a COS in Buffalo, USA.

9. The first COS was established in Buffalo, New York, in 1877 as an organized effort to eliminate poverty. • GOAL: to discover what caused poverty among individuals, eliminate the causes and thereby rid society of poverty.

10. The FOCUS of the COS was on the INDIVIDUALand reflected the belief that poverty was a character defect. • By REHABILITATING individuals, COS participants believed that poverty would be eliminated. • These principles gave rise to the use of FRIENDLY VISITORS, at first volunteers and later paid professionals trained to guide people to change behaviors that contributed to poverty and become productive.

11. Mary Richmond was the key figure of COS Movement, who began her career as a friendly visitor in Baltimore in 1891. • She wroteSocial Diagnosis in 1917 which was the first social work practice book to present professional ways to identify client’s problems. • Her efforts contributed to the establishment of the first social work school, THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF APPLIED PHILANTRHOPHY (1898), whichlater became the COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK.

12. Mary Richmond • Mary Ellen Richmond's work with families and their social problems, as well as her research, provided valuable insight into how charity evolved into social work. She successfully created a model for social casework (also known as case management).

13. Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-1928) was born in Belleville, Illinois. A few years later, after the death of her parents, she was sent to live with her grandmother and aunts in Baltimore, Maryland. Her grandmother, an active women's activist, was known as a spiritualist and a radical.

14. Richmond grew up surrounded by discussions of sufferings, racial problems, spiritualism. This upbringing promoted critical thinking and social activism in her.

15. Since Richmond's grandmother and aunts were not fond of the traditional education system, she was home schooled until the age of eleven when she entered a public school. • Social interaction or relationships were not her strong point and she dedicated herself to reading literature. • She graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and went with one of her aunts to New York.

16. She took a job at a publishing house doing a variety of clerical and mechanical tasks, a very difficult life with twelve-hour workdays. • Her aunt soon became ill and returned to Baltimore, leaving Mary on her own at the age of seventeen. Mary's life was one of loneliness, hard work, and poverty stricken. She had health problems and often did not have money for food or decent clothing.

17. After two years in New York, Richmond returned to Baltimore and worked for several years as a bookkeeper. During this time, she became involved with the Unitarian Church and developed social skills as she met new friends. Additionally, she sought something in life to bring personal fulfillment.

18. In 1888, Richmond applied for a job as Assistant Treasurer with the Charity Organization Society (COS) of Baltimore. The Charity Organization Societies in several cities were the first organizations to develop a structured social work profession, providing social services to the poor, disabled, and needy (especially children).

19. Richmond was responsible for increasing the public's awareness of the COS and for fundraising. She made speeches to organizations and groups around Baltimore. She soon was trained to become a "friendly visitor," • In 1891, Richmond was elected as the General Secretary of the COS of Baltimore. • Richmond became the director of the Charity Organizational Department of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York in 1909

20. Richmond also believed in focusing on the strengths of the person or family rather than blaming them for being bad. Much of her focus was on children, families, and medical social work. • She concentrated on the community as being a resource for any needy person or family. Her ideas on social work were quite revolutionary for the time and have made a resurgence after decades of an approach which blamed the person for their problems. These ideas are now the basis for current social work education

21. In spite of the good intentions of COS workers, changing the behavior of the poor people was not enough to solve the social problems of the period…

22. The Settlement Movement,1887

23. Objective • The Settlement Movement was based on the belief that in order to help the poor people, workers had to live within the community and provide services from their dwelling or settlement.

24. Philosophy of the movement “the individual well being was directly to external surroundings”

25. Most of the Settlement House were located in poor neighborhoods, and much of the workers efforts involved helping immigrants adjust to life in the United States

26. The ultimate goal was to shrink the gap between people who were poor and people of the wealthier classes . • Therefore, to help the individuals, settlement workers focused on changing the environment by advocating for better neighborhood services, public health programs, and employment conditions.

27. Jane Addams • Born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois, Jane Addams co-founded one of the first settlements in the United States, the Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, in 1889, and was named a co-winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.

28. Her father was the state senator and businessman, and so Addams lived a life of privilege. Her father had many important friends, including President Abraham Lincoln.

29. On one trip with friend Ellen Gates Starr, the 27-year-old Addams visited the famed Toynbee Hall, founded byCanon Samuel Barnett and Henrietta in 1884in London, England, a special facility established to help the poor. • She and Starr were so impressed by the settlement house that they sought to create one in Chicago. It wouldn't be long before their dream became reality.

30. They opened the Neighborhood Guild Settlement in New York City. • The second settlement, Hull House, was opened in Chicago in 1889. • Hull house was directed by Jane Addams

31. In 1889, Addams and Starr opened one of the first settlements in both the United States and North America, and the first in the city of Chicago: Hull House, which was named after the building's original owner. • The house provided services for the immigrant and poor population living in the Chicago area. Over the years, the organization grew to include more than 10 buildings and extended its services to include child care, educational courses, an art gallery, a public kitchen and several other social programs.

32. Addams also served as the first female president of the National Conference of Social Work, established the National Federation of Settlements and served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She died in 1935 in Chicago.

33. Difference between Settlers and COS • The settlers defined problems environmentally and engaged in social improvement. • The COS for the most part defined problems as personal deficiencies and emphasized the need for moral uplift to achieve social betterment. • It was Mary Richmond who brought a reconciliation of these two approaches by the classical text of social case work ‘ Social Diagnosis’ in 1917.

34. Ida Cannon (1877-1960) • Graduated from the Boston School for Social Work, Cannon started practice as a medical social worker • In 1915, she became "Chief of Social Service", & established the first organized social work department in a hospital. • Travelling extensively, Cannon brought her ideas to hospitals throughout the United States. • She helped develop a standardized program for training medical social workers. • In 1918 Cannon founded the American Association of Hospital Social Workers. Method 1: Social Casework

35. Ida Cannon (1877-1960) • Trained in nursing and social work, Cannon insisted that social workers needed specialized medical knowledge along with firm grounding in casework. • She insisted to document social work activity in the patient's medical chart, • Showed how to collaborate with physicians and nurses to meet the needs of their sickest, neediest patients • She studied the effects of occupation on disease and worried that in the immensity of individual needs, there would be insufficient time and energy for effective intervention by physicians Method 1: Social Casework

36. Ida Cannon (1877-1960) • In 1930, while addressing an august gathering of health professionals, Ida said, "The medical Social Service movement recognizes that there should be within the hospital someone definitely assigned to represent the patient's point of view and to work out with the physician, an adaptation of the medical treatment in the light of the patient's social condition". Method 1: Social Casework

37. Lydia Rapoport (1923-1971) • Eminent theorist, educator, and practitioner, Lydia Rapoport is best known as a pioneer in the field of short term preventive casework. • She earned her MSW degree from Smith College School of Social Work in 1944, as the youngest graduate in the school's history. • Rapoport began her career in the mental health field in Chicago and she earned a certificate in child therapy from the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Method 1: Social Casework

38. Lydia Rapoport (1923-1971) • From 1954 until her early death, she was a member of the faculty of the University of California School of Social Welfare at Berkeley and a director of their psychiatric social work programs. • She was the first United Nations inter-regional family welfare and family planning advisor in the Middle East. Method 1: Social Casework

39. Lydia Rapoport (1923-1971) • Her view of social casework is an open-ended flexible thought system capable of adaptation to a variety of problems without losing its overall social purpose. • Creativity in Social Work: Selected Writings of Lydia Rapoport, a compendium of her best known work, exemplifies her preventive approach. • In promoting and using the public health model of prevention in casework, and contrasting it to the psychiatric model and its emphasis on pathology, she influenced the theory and practice of short term treatment to a major degree. Method 1: Social Casework

40. Florence Hollis (1907 – 1987) • Hollis received a master's degree from Smith College School of Social Work and doctoral degree in Social Work from Bryn Mawr College. • Her master level thesis, "Emotional Factors in the Attitudes of Clients Toward Relief: Seven Case Studies," was published in 1931. • In September 1931, Hollis took a post as district superintendent at the Family Society of Philadelphia later assumed the position of district secretary at the Institute of Family Service (Associated Charities) in Cleveland, where she was responsible for administration and supervision of case workers. Method 1: Social Casework

41. Florence Hollis (1907 – 1987) • Hollis's teaching career began in 1934 when she taught one course in casework at Western Reserve University, while still maintaining her position as district secretary in Cleveland. • In 1937 she was appointed fulltime assistant professor. • The following year she began a study of documentation of success stories of social casework. • Her findings were published in 1939, in Social Casework in Practice: Six Case Studies. Method 1: Social Casework

42. Florence Hollis (1907 – 1987) • She received a fellowship to study (doctoral research) the social and psychological factors contributing to marital difficulties. • Hollis's doctoral dissertation, completed in 1947, was published in 1949 under the title ‘Women in Marital Conflict’. • While working on her doctorate, she taught at the New York School of Social Work, (later Columbia University School of Social Work), and also served as Director of Publications for the Family Service Association of America, editing the Journal of Social Case Work (previously The Family.) Method 1: Social Casework

43. Florence Hollis (1907 – 1987) • For much of the next twenty years, Hollis continued to teach at Columbia and to maintain a small clinical practice at the Community Service Society of New York. • From 1955 to 1962, she taught summers at the Smith College School for Social Work. • Beginning in the late 1940s she started to develop ideas for a classification system used to describe the techniques used by caseworkers in their direct work with clients Method 1: Social Casework

44. Florence Hollis (1907 – 1987) • The study funded by National Institute of Mental Health grant was published in 1964, a widely acclaimed book ‘Casework: A Psychosocial Therapy’ • The first edition was translated into several languages. Subsequent revised editions, published in 1972, 1981, and 1990 (three years after her death), continued to attract a wide audience. Method 1: Social Casework

45. Helen Harris Perlman (1906 - 2004) • Helen Harris Perlman graduated in 1926 from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in English. • She started her career as a summer caseworker for the Chicago Jewish Service Bureau. • She got a great deal of satisfaction helping people ‘I got a great deal of satisfaction from being able to help people. I found that in many cases, families faced the same kind of problems and conflicts that one encountered in the great works of literature.’ Method 1: Social Casework

46. Helen Harris Perlman (1906 - 2004) • After receiving the Commonwealth Fund scholarship, she completed her Masters in Social Work at the New York School of Social Work, now the Columbia University School of Social Work. • She joined the faculty of the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, in 1945 and later became the Distinguished Service Professor Emerita& a known speaker. • She is best known for her work carrying forward and integrating concepts that emerged from diverging schools of psychoanalytic thought. Method 1: Social Casework

47. Helen Harris Perlman (1906 - 2004) • Her most widely read work, ‘Social Casework: A Problem Solving Process’, a text book in schools of social work worldwide was published in 1957. • She also wrote more than 75 articles and seven other books • Her thinking diverged markedly from the then-current popularity of long-term psychotherapy. • She didn't think that people always needed in-depth therapy, but a short-term therapy which is a common form of help. Method 1: Social Casework

48. Helen Harris Perlman (1906 - 2004) • She is the founder of the present scheme of social casework: Person – Problem – Place – Process • A person with a problem comes to a place where a professional helps him through a process. • ‘Social case work is a process used by certain human welfare agencies to help individuals to cope more effectively with their problems in social functioning’ (Perlman, 1957:4). Method 1: Social Casework

49. Helen Harris Perlman (1906 - 2004) • She was honored by the National Association of Social Work, the Association of Clinical Social Workers, and the Council of Social Work Education • She received honorary degrees from Boston University, the University of Southern Florida and her alma mater the University of Minnesota. Method 1: Social Casework

50. HISTORY OF SOCIAL CASE WORK IN UK