SOCIAL CASE WORK

Definition
Mary Richmond (1915)

“Social Case Work may be defined as the Art of doing different things with different people,
co-operating with them to achieve some of their own & society‟s betterment.”

Mary Richmond (1917)

Social case work is the art of bringing about better adjustments in the social relationship of
individual men or women or children

Mary Richmond (1922)

Social case work means, „those processes which develop personality through adjustment
consciously affected, individual by individual, between men and their social environment‟

Jarrett (1919)

Social case work is “the art of bringing an individual who is in a condition of social disorder
into the best possible relation with all parts of his environment‟.

Taft (1920)

Social case work means “social treatment of a maladjusted individual involving an attempt
to understand his personality, behaviour and social relationships and to assist him in
working out better social and personal adjustment”.

Watson (1922)

Social Case Work is the art of untangling and restructuring the twisted personality in such a
manner that the individual can adjust himself to his environment

Queen (1932)

Social case work is the art “of adjusting personal relationship”.

Lee (1923)

Social case work is the art of changing human attitudes”

Taylor (1926)

Social case work is a process concerned with the understanding of individuals as whole
personalities and with the adjustments of these to socially healthy lives

Raynolds (1935)

Social case work is the processes of counseling with a client on a problemwhich are
essentially his own, involving some difficulty in his social relationship.

Raynods (1935)

Social case work is that form of social work which assists the individual which he suggests
to relate himself to his family, his natural group , his community

Klein (1938)

Social case work is a technical method in social work…. A way of adjusting to the client to
his personal problems.

Swift (1939)

Social case work is the art of assisting the individual in developing and making use of his
personal capacity to deal with problems which he faces in his life.

DeSchweiinitz (1939)

Case work means those processes involved in giving service, financial assistance, or
personal counsel to individuals by the representatives of social agencies, according to
polices established and with consideration of individual need.

Strode (1948)

Social case work is the process of assisting the individual to best possible social adjustment
through the use of social case study, social resources and knowledge from relative fields of
learning.

Towle (1947)

Social case work is one method ….by which certain social services are made available in
areas of unmet needs.

Bowers (1949)

Social case work is an art in which knowledge of the sciences of human relations and skill
in relationship are used to mobilize capacities in the individual and resources in the
community appropriate for better adjustment between the client and all or any part of his
total environment.

Hollis (1954)

“Social Case work is a method employed by social worker to help individuals find solution
to problems of social adjustment which they are unable to handle in satisfactory way by
their own efforts.”

Gordon Hamilton (1956)

“Social case work (which is both a tool and area of work) consists of those processes which
develop personality through adjustment consciously affected, individual by individual
between man and his social environment.”

Gordon Hamilton

In social case work the client is stimulated to participate in the study of his situation, to
share plans, to make an effective effort to solve his problems, using his own resources and
whatever community resources are available and appropriate.

Perlman (1957)

“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.”

Safrad

“Social Case Work is a method employed by a social worker to help individual, find a
solution of their problem of social adjustment which they are unable to handle in a
satisfactory way by their own effort.”
Concept
Social Case Work, a primary method of social work, is concerned with the adjustment and
development of individual towards more satisfying human relations. Better family life,
improved schools, better housing, more hospitals and medical care facilities, protected
economic conditions and better relations between religious groups help the individual in
his adjustment and development. But his adjustment and development depend on the use
of these resources by him. Sometimes due to certain factors, internal or external, he fails to
avail existing facilities. In such situations, social caseworker helps him. Thus, social
casework is one to one relationship, which works in helping the individual for his
adjustment and development.

Every individual reacts differently to his social, economic and physical environments and
as such problems of one individual are different from those of another. The practice of
casework is a humanistic attempt for helping people who have difficulty in coping with the
problems of daily living. It is one of the direct methods of social work which uses the case-
by-case approach for dealing with individuals or families as regards their problems of
social functioning. Case work, aims at individualized services in the field of social work in
order to help the client to adjust with the environments.

Social casework, representing that part of social work which focused more on the
individual, had a vital non-poverty populations. Social work's prestige was raised through
work in war-related activities such as the Red Cross's Home Service. Caseworkers with the
home service, led by Mary Richmond, applied their skills to problems faced by service men
and their families. Physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists working with emotionally
disturbed soldiers saw the social worker as a natural ally. They began using caseworkers as
specialists in social adjustment. Such vital activities were outside the profession's
traditional constituency of the poor and indigent and opened up new opportunities for
social work.

The second major event that marked social casework‟s ascendancy within social work was
the publication of Mary Richmond's Social Diagnosis. For several decades, Ms. Richmond
had been attempting to turn the practical but rough-hewn techniques and skills commonly
known as casework into a more systematic approach. After honing her ideas through
workshops, lectures and articles, Ms. Richmond put her ideas into a book which was the
first definitive text on casework. Much more than just another book, Social Diagnosis, gave
to the new field of social work an anchor in its quest for professionalism. In 1915, noted
authority of professional education, Abraham Flexner, had delivered a paper at the
National Conference on Charities and Corrections declaring that social work was not yet a
profession. In his paper, Dr. Flexner was particularly critical of the new field's lack of a
technique which was "communicable through the educational process". Mary Richmond,
through Social Diagnosis, gave social work what Dr. Flexner said it was lacking and
propelled casework from one of a number of approaches used by charity workers into a
major form of practice.

Origin of Social Case Work

By working with the poor Social Workers radically realized that forces within the
individual and forces external to him contributed for human suffering.

Though casework as a mode of helping people on the basis of a person-to-person

relationship was present in every society from ancient times, the professional method of
casework originated in U.S.A. in the second decade of this century. One of the earliest
organised efforts in U.S.A. to help the poor was the establishment of the American Charity
Organization Society (1) in 1877 on the pattern of the Charity Organization of London,
which was started seven years earlier. One of the aims of the society was to find out ways
and means of helping the poor and needy and thus to organise individualised services
geared to this purpose. The society used volunteers, who were called friendly visitors, to
visit the homes of the poor for purposes of assessing their need, for rendering material
assistance and for giving them guidance and advice. The friendly visitors were
subsequently supplemented by 'paid agents'. These paid helpers gradually developed,
systematic procedures in performing their tasks. They collected data about the needy
individuals and families, and helped them after assessing their need. They also maintained
records in which they kept all the information including personal data, as well as the type
of help rendered. It was out of the practice of these early workers that casework developed
gradually to a professional method in subsequent years. Their collective experience of
knowing the poor families and their problems and the concurrent studies of poverty by
social scientists broadened the understanding of human behaviour. There was the growing
recognition that there were forces within the individual and forces external to him which
influenced his behaviour and the nature of his existence in society. In course of time the
terms 'paid agents' and 'the poor' were supplanted by caseworkers and clients respectively
in the terminology of the help giving organisation and the office of the organisation came to
be known as the agency.

Mary Richmond's Contribution to Social Case Work

Mary Richmond's book, Social Diagnosis, which was published in 1917 may be considered
as the first book in casework. It set forth a methodology of helping clients through
systematic ways of assessing their problems and handling them. Besides, the book
introduced the principle of individualization and also acknowledged the client's right of
self-determination. The first training programme for caseworkers was in the form of
summer courses. Then the need for more substantial training was found necessary and
schools of social work, attached to agencies, came into existence. When these schools
attained a certain standing in the community, they were recognized as professional schools
under the administrative authority of universities.

What Social Workers learned from Freudian psychology & Economic depression
Freudian psychology which emerged in the 1920s had a strong impact on casework. The
new psychoanalytical knowledge pertaining to human behaviour was eagerly absorbed by
caseworkers which was found useful in understanding clients and their problems. During
this period of development, caseworkers focused their attention on psychic forces within
the individual. During the economic depression of the 1930s casework had to consider the
economic factors which were causing distress to clients. There was also the realization that
economic distress could lead to emotional distress and breakdown. One major outcome of
the depression was the establishment of governmental public assistance programs. It
relieved the voluntary agencies from the tasks of providing economic help which enabled
the caseworkers to devote more time in dealing with clients' interpersonal problems.

Broadening the understanding–From self to interaction with others

During the 1940s, caseworkers were exposed to the formulations on ego psychology based
on the observations of human beings as regard's their differential coping and adapting
abilities in times of stress. The new studies on human behaviour brought to light the
potentialities of the human personality for healthy adaptation to life's stresses. During the
next two decades, some casework theoreticians began to examine sociological concepts like
social role, social system, social class, etc., with reference to their applicability to casework
situations. The result was the shifting of the focus from the self of the individual to his
continuous interactions with his significant others in social settings.

American casework did influence the use of casework in India as the first professional
social workers who did casework in the Indian setting were trained in the American
schools of social work. Casework was one of the courses taught when the Sir Dorabji Tata
Graduate School of Social Work, currently known as the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, was started in Bombay in 1936, and it became a method of practice in helping
people with their problems of social functioning. Some social welfare agencies employed
caseworkers particularly with the purpose of helping their clients in a one-to-one
relationship. Currently, the so-called caseworkers attached to some welfare services are
not trained social workers, and those professionally trained social workers who use the
method of casework considerably in their work are not given the designation of
caseworkers as they are likely to use other methods as well.
Causes of Human Problems as conceived by Social Case Workers

Problems of social functioning cause distress to the individuals who come voluntarily or
involuntarily to a social work agency for help. What is important to note here is that these
individuals are not to be considered as one of a mass of people or a unit of a category, but
as unique persons. Casework method in social work is an indication of the high value
placed on the individual by the profession. Those people who seek social work help for
their problems of living do so because their normal coping methods are not effective in
dealing with the particular problems. There are reasons why individuals find their normal
coping patterns ineffective in the face of some problems. These reasons may be broadly
divided into five categories.

1. Lack of material resources:

Social work agencies do not have financial resources to give assistance to people who seek
material help. But, when, lack of money makes it difficult for an individual to deal with a
particular situation effectively, it is likely that he can obtain financial help through the
services of a caseworker, depending upon the nature of the situation and the policy of the
agency. For example, it is possible for an amputee who is poor and who is a patient in a
general hospital to get monetary help through the social work department of the hospital
for buying artificial limbs.

2. Misconceptions about situations and relationships and lack of appropriate

information:

Wrong notions about things prevent people from handling difficult situations effectively.
Many people have superstitious beliefs about diseases which prevent them from taking
prompt medical treatment which can cure the disease. For example, if a man believes that
his child's epileptic fits are caused by the possession of a devil, he is likely to try remedies
which will worsen the condition. Sometimes it is ignorance of existing services and
resources which delays action. Help is required to correct distorted perceptions and for
obtaining essential information.

3. Illness or health related handicaps:

Physical and mental illness and health related handicaps of various types make people
helpless or irrational in the face of difficulties. For instance, when in a family the father is
ill, the mother will have to bear extra burden and face problems alone for which she may
require outside help. The patient and his family may need help to accept the illness of the
former and to make realistic plans for the present and future.
4. Emotional distress resulting from stressful situations:

In certain situations strong feelings are aroused which make a person incapable of acting
sensibly. For instance, when a father comes to know of his adolescent son's delinquent
activities he may feel so upset and ashamed that he may want to throw the boy out of the
house and to sever all his connections with him. In such situations the emotionally upset
person needs someone to whom he can verbalize his feelings freely. Verbalization will
reduce the need to act out irrationally and set the mind clear for objective thinking.

5. Personality features or deficiencies:

Defective features of one's personality not only create problematic situations for oneself
and others but also make one incapable of solving problems of life. If a little girl is brought
up by her mother in the strong belief that her father who deserted the family was a bad
man and that all men are likewise bad, it is probable that the girl will have a difficult
relationship with her husband when she later marries. The generalized wrong idea may get
deeply implanted in the daughter's personality during childhood and she may not be even
aware of it as she grows into adulthood. There are innumerable problems of this type
effecting human relationships, caused by unhealthy attitudes and reactions which are
deeply embedded in the personality. Here, the remedy lies in helping the persons
concerned to develop insight about their own reactions and learn to act consciously and
appropriately rather than react automatically to situations.

Objectives of Social Case Work

To make good rapport with the common people

To find-out, understand & solve the internal problems of an individual

To strengthen ones ego power

To prevent problem

To develop internal resources

Nature & Characteristics of Case Work

Relationship arise out of shared & emotionally charged situation

Relationship contains elements of acceptance, expectation, support & stimulation

Client & case worker are interdependent

Case work relationship may have several therapeutic values

Improvement of condition

More adjustment within the society

Development of personality

Capacity building

Relationship needs outside help

Case worker too has relationship reactions and part of and part of one‟s professional skills
in their management

Components/elements of case work:

Purpose & concern for the client system

A purpose to find-out internal problems & try to solve it and a concern to make good
rapport, feel ones feelings and aims at individualized service

Expectation at three level

Expectation of the case worker from the client, how the case worker feels about the clients
ability & what extend client support anybody -Expectation of the client from the Case
worker -Positive result in the period of interaction

Accuracy of Empathy and clear communication

Think positively in others point of view - What extent you are sympathetic - Ability to
perceive & communicate accurately & feel - Case worker should be sensitive to express
feelings towards client by voice, posture and good communication

Non Possessive warmth

Give respect, acceptance, liking, caring and concern for the client in a non-dominating way.

Genuineness and acceptance

Case worker must be practical in nature. He must be a person of genuineness being real,
honest in their approach and never go beyond her/his limit.

Authority

Case worker must have a capacity to handle any situation, being resourceful and helpful
Having knowledge, attitude, experience and a position to identify and solve internal
problem of client.