History of

Social Work
Dr. Ellen
Perrault
SOWK 201
 Historical Influences

• Christian
• Economic
• Political
• Psychotherapeutic
• Evidence-based
 Elizabethan Poor Laws (1601)

Before this law the poor

were punished or
executed

This law offered relief to

people who were unable
to work
– Those described as
"lame, impotent, old,
blind“
"the
poor
should
be set
to
work"
 Elizabethan Poor Laws
(1601 and 1834)

• Less Eligibility
 Thomas Chalmers
(1819)

5 step plan for the mobilization of

“natural resources”
– Increase the family’s self reliance
– Seek the support of a relative
– Organize mutual support
– Seek rich patrons to provide
charity
– Provide church alms from the
weekly collections
 Elberfeld Movement (1853)

• Wealthy “Visitors” were

given compulsory service
with 3-4 families
• Visitor duties:
– Education of the poor
– Provision of a “refining
influence”
– Insistence of
discipline/order
– Reporting idlers to the
Police
Christian
Church
 Octavia Hill (1860s)

• supervises the management of

homes for the poor
 Octavia Hill

Society of Women’s Housing Estate Managers

• Working men’s clubs
• a teetotal society
• night classes for girls and boys
• supervision of playgrounds
 Settlement Movement
(began 1880s)

Toynbee Hall
Hull House (1889)
Hull House
 Mary Richmond

•
Mary Richmond
 Historical Diversity

Symbols
for the
diversity
in social
work
Jane practice Mary
Addams Richmond
 Canadian Charity Organization
Societies – Visitors

“not
alms
but a
friend”
 Protestant Charity
Organization Society (1901)
How would you
determine
when someone
is
“genuinely” in
need?

What would
shape your
decision?
Based on your answer to the previous question,
how might your decision be shaped by:

• Your socioeconomic background?

• Your ethnic background?
• Your family norms and values?
 Social Gospel movement
JS Woodsworth
• Writer,
theologian, &
social reformer
• 1913 Secretary
of the Canadian
Welfare League
for the western
provinces
• 1921 elected as
a Labour
Member of
Parliament for
Winnipeg North
Centre
Settlement Workers
• social and
economic issues
to assist their
“neighbours in
need.”
Canadian Association of
Social Workers
• In 1926, the Canadian Association for
Social Workers was formed.
• In 1928 we had our first Canadian
Conference of Social Work.
1928 Milford Conference

• Is social work a disparate group of

technical specialties or a unified
profession with more similarities than
differences among its specialties

The conclusion is that social work

is one profession with more
similarities than differences among
its specialties.
 Charlotte Whitton

“There is a grave danger of

the development, as a matter
of course, of a general
tendency to reliance on social
aid that the inquiry regards
with grave disquiet as
destructive of personal effort,
and self-dependence, and so
disruptive of the very basis of
initiative, enterprise, and
strength of character that
must be the greatest
resource of any people.”
 Social welfare provisions
1941-1974
• Unemployment Insurance Act, 1940
• Family Allowance Act, 1944
• Old Age Security Act, 1951
• Old Age Assistance Act, 1951
• Unemployment Assistance Act, 1956
• Canada/Quebec Pension Plan, 1965
• Canada Assistance Plan, 1966
• Unemployment Insurance Act, 1971
Casework Develops

Family Social Work

• mental and physical
evaluations
• detailed social histories
Casework Develops

Around 1900, Psychiatry

leads to:
•Psychiatry-Psychiatric
Social Work
Casework Develops

By WWI, casework had

developed as a major
force in the new field of
social work.
•Child Welfare
•Juvenile Courts
•Schools
•Hospitals
 1930s
Great Depression
• Re-commitment to reform
Social justice > Individual adjustment
 1940s

Freudian thought Carl Rogers

 1950s

•Expansion of services
 1950s

• Diagnostic and Functional

merge
• 1958: Person-in-Environment
• 1959: Social Work Education
Curriculum Study:
• casework
• group work
• community organization
administration
• research
 1960s and 1970s
Independent Mental Health Services
• Large mental health hospitals
• Office based practitioners
• Community mental health clinics
• Psychiatry wards
• Independent and largely volunteer
operated services
Armitage, 2003
Cold War era
1857- 1996
 1991

“While some mental illness may not be

preventable, countering the effects of
poverty, poor housing, physical and
sexual abuse, the lack of meaningful
employment and the abuse of drugs
and alcohol is as important as medical
treatment in the management and social
integration of the mentally ill.”
BC Royal Commission on Health Care and Costs
Mental Health Currently
Community mental health
• variety in
interventions
• short-term
modalities
• research for
social workers
MORE
RECENTLY
 SOCIAL WORKERS IN A
CLINICAL ROLE

• Today’s climate
 More recently

• Social work frameworks

– Strengths perspective
– Anti-oppressive practice
– Diversity and cultural competence
• Evidence-based practice
• E-practice
 What is social work now?

• Improve the lives of

clients at a
individual, family,
community,
organizational, and
global level
• create opportunities
• facilitate positive
change at a broader
level
 See you in the
discussion
• What is your keenest insight or most
precious learning from reflecting on this
presentation?
 References
Carniol, B. (2005). Case critical [electronic resource]:
Social services & social justice in Canada. Toronto,
ON: Between the Lines.
Jennissen, T., & Lundy, C. (2011). One hundred years of
social work: A history of the profession in English
Canada, 1900-2000. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier
University Press.
Watson, W. (1998). Globalization and the meaning of
Canadian life. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto
Press.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The first duty of a human

being is to assume the
right functional
relationship to society -
more briefly, to find your
real job, and do it.