Historical Development of Social Casework

Western Beginnings

The use of social casework as a method of social work intervention was first
introduced in the Philippines by the early Americans who came into the country.
Historically the Americans were responsible for its development as a social work
method, first as charity workers, later as friendly visitors, and last as social workers.
However, its evolution may be traced for back to some of the early performers of
Christian Charities. One was a Spanish philosopher and the other, a Scottish
protestant minister.

Individualization

The idea of helping the poor on an individual basis was first brought up by a
Spanish philosopher, Juan Luis de Vives, who lived in Belgium during the sixteenth
century. He was witness to the indiscriminate distribution of alms by the pious rich
as well as the religious orders with nary a second though or concern for the well-
being of each individual poor. He therefore advanced that the fate of the individual
poor deserved attention, that the donors or alms givers should be concerned with
what happened afterwards to each and every recipient. In those days, all over
Europe, they were called “paupers”, a term that signified way of life dependent on
relief. He advocated that an investigation of the social conditions of every pauper
family should be conducted to determine specific need and/or problems. He
recommended that besides the distribution of alms, vocational training, employment
and other rehabilitative services should be provided.
However, Spain at that time was at the seat of counter reformation so his
recommendations seems to have been totally ignored. Charitable acts then were still
“steeped” in the old traditions and interpretations of Christian teaching.

Personal Neighboring Aid

It was not until the 19 th century that a similar idea would surface, this time in
Scotland. The philosophy of personal, parochial relief was introduced by Thomas
Chalmers (178-1847) a Scottish parish minister. He began by initiating in his parish,
a program of private charity based on neighboring aid. He advocated that each case
of destitution should be handled on individual basis. Instead of simply doling out
relief or alms, each case should be investigated so as to determine the cause of
distress. Only then should a solution to the problem be attempted. Among others,
he stressed that a personal interest in the fate of the individual was necessary to
ensure the rehabilitation and/or upliftment of the individual poor.

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Charity Organization Societies of England

Individualized Approach

Fifty years after Chalmer’s pioneering work in Scotland, his idea was picked up
by the charity workers of England. They incorporated the two ideas, individualization
and personal neighboring aid in the approach that they used in dealing with the
poor. The London Charity Organization Societies was organized in 1869 to operate a
program of relief based on Chalmer’s idea thus laying the groundwork for casework
as a method in helping the poor. They established the policy that help would be
extended on a case to case basis depending on each individual circumstances. Soon
a number of Charity Organization Societies sprouted in England.

The COS encouraged the growth of private charities, and the giving of donations
and bequests on their behalf. Volunteers were recruited to bring aid to the poor
families and they were encouraged to be resourceful. These volunteers were well-
to-do. It was assumed that they led a very moral and successful lives and
themselves could convey these ideas to their clients and serve as models as well for
the poor to emulate.

The Concept of Poverty

Unlike today’s modern concept which recognize that poverty may be due to
poor environment and/or to deficiencies to the socio-economic and political systems,
the charity organization society workers of the nineteenth century believed that the
individual was mainly responsible for his condition. Therefore poverty was a sure
sign of weal moral character. Nonetheless the charity workers were also concerned
about the fact that the acceptance of relief could destroy the self-respect of the
pauper and make him perpetually dependent on alms. The volunteers were directed
to see to it that the pauper exerted all his abilities in maintaining himself.

In addition the volunteers were directed to exert moral influence on the pauper
in such way that he would change his attitudes and behaviors. In the main this was
due to the fact already stated that they believed that poverty was due to personal
failure or lack of firm moral character on the part of the individual, hence he must
be counseled to change for the better. Later this would be conceptualized by social
workers as one of the objectives of casework, to change the client’s attitude and
behavior in a given situation.

The COS was quite popular in England and it is credited with several
achievements. Among these are the introduction of the friendly visitors who
conducted the investigation of each poor individual or family thus laying the
groundwork for casework. It also achieved the coordination of services among
different relief organizations, of poor relief and private charities thus paving the way
for community organization as a social work method. It also claims to have

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succeeded in eliminating fraudulent set-ups, prevented the duplication of support,
and strengthened the concept of rehabilitation of the poor.

Charity Organizations of the United States

The Emergence of Casework

Following the example of England, starting in 1877 COS were established in

cities and towns in the United States to introduce reforms in the administration of
public relief. In reality the COS was an attempt by community-minded individuals to
organize relief giving work and to established some kind of coordination among all
relief giving sources. They were of the firm belief that the state should leave the
field of relief giving assistance to private and religious organizations. The latter drew
financial support from voluntary contributions and donations from philanthropic
sources.

The Helping Process

The American charity workers improved on the ideas established by their

English counterparts. Apart from relief giving, the American COS established a
separate function: the helping process. As conceptualized it involved four steps:
registration, investigation, cooperation, and friendly visiting. Here one may
recognize similar elements in today’s casework practice: intake, data gathering, and
identification of the problem, the establishment of the client-worker relationship, and
the home visit.

The Friendly Visitor

The friendly visitor became the American forerunner of the caseworker. He/she
visited individuals and families applying for assistance to determine whether or not
there was a need for relief. Only upon actual verification was relief given. A
significant effort was made to consider need from the point of view of the sufferer.
The friendly visitor emphasized friendship, not alms. Since then friendship has
evolved into a more professional approach. It is now referred to as client-worker or
helping relationship. It is based on mutual trust and rapport.

Family-Centered Casework

Although the concept of relief had changed from impersonal relief giving to the
individualized approach it was in no way individualized in the strictest sense of the
word. The individual usually was a member of a family and they were included in
the approach. This development took place in the early 1800s.

The avowed aim of COS was to foster self-reliance among the poor.
Consequently the friendly visitors directed their efforts to educating the family
members, and introducing activities that would result in more self-help.

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The objectives of the investigation of the family-centered casework were defined as
follows:
1) To learn the nature of the “diseases” as the family was considered to be
“socially ailing”
2) To discover strengths within the family to be used for their recovery towards
self-maintenance

All these case illustrations used in this book are family-centered.

COS Contributions

By the first two decades of this, the 20 th century social casework as a social
work method of intervention would emerge clearly, with the COS playing a major
role in its development. Specifically the organization would be credited with three
major contributions:
1. Its emphasis on thorough investigation of each case held the groundwork for
the social case study function;
2. It gave rise to the family agency which became the traditional home for
casework; and
3. It gathered the first professional training for caseworkers, and therefore, for
social workers.

The Scientific Approach to Casework

Mary Richmond was executive head of a large family agency for many years in
the United States. In 1911 she joined the Russel Sage Foundation. All the while she
was taking notes on the development and practice of casework for 15 years. Her
book “Social Diagnosis” appeared in 1917. It was an attempt to draw together basic
knowledge of casework up to that time.
Richmond then defined social casework as consisting of three steps: the
gathering of social evidence, social diagnosis, and treatment. This is sometimes
referred to as the casework trilogy.
Richmond while still connected with the family agency also pioneered in social
work education. In 1897 she formulated a plan for a school; in 1898 this school
materialized into the Training School for Applied Philanthropy and was set up in
New York. It became the prototype of school of social work.

Casework in the Philippines

Introduction

Casework, a scientific method used in dealing with needy individuals and their
families was introduced into the Philippine setting around the 1920s. this
achievement is attributed to Josefa Jara Martinez, a pioneering social worker. In
1921 she obtained a diploma in social work from the New York School of Social
Work. Upon her arrival in the Philippines she was hired as the first Filipino Executive

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Director of the Associated Charities of Manila, an agency that was founded by
American residents in 1917. Under her able leadership the agency began to arouse
community consciousness and involvement in the prevention and remedy of existing
social problems. At the same time it introduced the individualized approach of
studying and assisting individuals and families. One of Martinez function was to
supervise volunteer home visitors. She initiated them in the scientific procedures of
casework then being advocated by Mary Richmond.

Child care institutions and public assistance settings

There are no historical records to show when the beginnings of social

casework first appeared on the Philippine scene. However there are indications that
it was being practice in child care institutions and in public assistance and medical
settings. The presence of American officials and missionaries would have made it so.
Officially it may have made its embryonic appearance in 1915.

Medical and psychiatric social work

An unpublished social work thesis recounts that the first social services unit
was organized at the Philippine General Hospital in 1915. The workers of the service
were to have been assigned to conduct social services work in the hospital.
The same study also cited the establishment of psychiatric social work
practice in 1923 at the National Psychiatric Hospital (now known as the National
Mental Hospital). The workers were assigned to gather statistical information about
the families of the patients admitted to the hospital for the use of the doctors.
In 1949 a medical social service was created in San Lazaro Hospital. It was
patterned after the Almoner Service in England. This event gave further impetus to
the practice of social work in a medical setting. The workers started to display a
more sophisticated approach to the problems of the patient and his family. The
process focused on the social and emotional components of the illness of the
patient, in relation to himself, his family, and community.
However, what may be considered as a major breakthrough in social work
practice in the medical setting was the passage of Republic Act No. 747 in 1962. The
law provided that eligibility for medical assistance would be based on the
fluctuations in the standard of living. Simultaneously, a medical social worker of the
Department of Health was sent to the United States for training in medical social
work. In pursuance of the law, the Department issued a circular in 1964 which
among other things provided for the establishment of a plantilla item.

Casework Literature

In terms of literature there is a paucity in the production of casework material

although numerous articles find themselves in print now and then. Most of the
materials have been available in mimeographed form usually for teaching and
agency training purposes. The date however, only two books have been published,
with UNICEF/BSW assistance to the authorss. These are Social Work Practice by

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Virginia Hobbert, Emma Paras, and Esther Viloria, all social workers, and The Filipino
Family in Crisis: Ten Case Studies by Eugenia Jamias (a social worker), Felicisma C.
Serafica (a clinical psychologist) and Rodolfo Varias (a psychiatrist).

In 1979 the Philippine Association of Social Worker conducted a case study

contest. The three winning entries were published in the Social Work Journal.

In the past immediate year there have been numerous conferences, seminars
and workshops held by practitioners and educators in an effort to make social work
practice as well as casework, group work, and community organization methods
more relevant and effective to the current and emerging Philippine situations, and to
national goals and aspirations. The Ministry of Social Services and Development has
just recently (1991) embarked on a reexamination of the concept of total family
approach.

Definitios

The Philippine Encyclopedia of Social Work simply defines social casework as

“an individualized form of helping people cope with personal problems usually
involving an impairment of breakdown of adequate social functioning”.

Kazuko Kay on the other hand defines casework as “a method of social work
which intervenes in the psycho-social aspects of a person’s life to restore, improve,
and develop his social functioning or prevent its malfunction by enhancing his role
performance as a constructive and productive individual. It is a problem-solving as
well as a helping process”.

According to Esther Viloria social casework is “a helping process which

consists of a variety of activities that may include the giving of material assistance,
referrals to other community facilities, rendering emotional and psychological
support through sensitive listening, expressions of acceptance and reassurances,
making suggestions, appropriately advising and setting limits, encouraging the
individual to express his feelings, likewise encouraging him to effect his plans,
assisting the individual to narrate and examine his situation and/or working out
within a consideration and better understanding of the causal connections between
his present attitudes and mode of adjustment with past experiences. All these may
be used in combination to respond to the person under stress, so as to enable him
to meet his needs more fully, and to function more adequately in his social
relationships”.

These three definitions are more or less agreed on the following concepts:
that social casework is a social work method used in working with individuals, who
have problems in social functioning; that it is a helping as well as problem-solving
process; that the goal is to improve the individual’s role performance; and that it is
attended by a variety of social work activities that may include the giving of material
assistance as well as emotional and psychological support. These are the basic

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components of social work - every practice must contain these. However there may
be variations in practice.

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