Carmen Ortiz Hendricks, DSW, ACSW, President, NYC/NASW Chapter
(September 1997)
The profession has chosen 1998 to celebrate the first 100 years of the social work profession in the United States. Some may be surprised that this young profession is primarily a product of the 20th Century. Others may debate just how much social work has evolved in 100 years, and how much it has been an instrument for change or for maintaining the mainstream status quo.
Reflecting on the first centurty of social work, I am reminded of Helen Harris Perlman, a pivotal figure in the profession, who stated that one needs to look back to see ahead. Reisch and Gambrill in Social Work in the 21st Century provide a useful framework on the past, present and future of the profession. "...because a primary role of social work is the generation of knowledge for action, and all actions have consequences beyond their immediate impact, the profession must be as concerned with the future as it is with learning from the past and deciphering the present (1997)."
Where social work has been stimulates wide-ranging considerations of how much human behavior and social environments have altered in the mere span of a century. There are many philosophical, historical, scientific, economic, demographic, and cultural shifts that have contributed to the enormous progress and painful setbacks of the 20th Century. One of the most significant factors of this century has been the constant, frequent, and diverse waves of immigrants who have shaped this country then, now and into the future. I vividly picture my own grandmother and grandfather arriving on a boat from Puerto Rico in 1946 with very few resources but a great deal of determination. Living in New York City I witness daily the miracle of an urban, industrial society that was built by diverse people, and I am enraged by anti-immigration legislation and sentiment that forgets or ignores this historical reality.
Looking back brings to mind other significant events and figures that have influenced social work practice including turn of the century prison and asylum reform; prohibition; suffrage; civil rights, women's rights, and gay and lesbian rights; the great depression and social security legislation; two World Wars; the Korean, Vietnam, and Middle East conflicts; the invention of the atom bomb; the war on poverty; J.F.K. and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Darwin, Freud, Marx; psychoanalysis and behaviorism; baby boomers; cloning; and walking on the moon.
Social service, health and mental health care systems have undergone profound alterations from philanthropic organizations to help the morally inferior to huge businesses concerned with productivity and profit. I find myself wondering about the differences between present day shelters from turn of the century poor houses; welfare recipients from paupers; substance abusers from drunkards; single mothers from unwed mothers; mental illness from insanity; group homes from orphanages; community-based agencies from settlement houses; or workfare from work camps. Beyond political correctness, it is important to understand the fundamental ideological reasons for why many social workers have shifted their thinking from ego to eco; charity to entitlements; pathology to strength perspectives; color blindness to multicultural expertise; friendly visitor to caseworker; caseworker to clinician; micro practice to macro practice.
Social workers have learned a great deal from 100 years of working with increasingly diverse communities. Social workers know how to counsel, advocate, assess and plan services for families, school-aged children, youth, people with AIDS, persons with disabilties, and the elderly. Professional social workers will need to continue to build expertise in working with people of differing racial, biracial, and multiracial backgrounds; people from various multiethnic and religious cultures; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; people raised in various family structures; and above all social workers will continue to serve the poor or working class client by expanding their resources and opportunities in this society.
Social workers will be the major providers of services to workers dealing with the problems associated with alienation, downsizing, exploitation and technological advances which affect the quality of the work place, health care, and all forms of information sharing and communication. The recent United Postal Service workers strike brought out many issues workers, including social workers, are concerned with: more full-time and less part-time employment, health benefits for part-time workers, and salaries commensurate with the quality of the work and expertise of the worker. These are Issues of particular concern to social workers in hospitals and managed care settings.
Several constants have been present throughout social work's history: (1) agency-based social work practice, (2) the helping arts, and (3) social work education. Despite growth in independent social work practice, social workers are still the primary providers of services in the vast array of social agencies available today including schools, hospitals, mental health clinics, child welfare settings, substance abuse programs, family agencies, prisons and correctional facilities, courts, unions, settlement houses, senior centers, nursing homes, etc. Theories about human behavior and the helping process have gone through many evolutions, but what is still essential for social work practice is that special kind of committed individual who genuinely cares for and respects the people they work with and serve.
The important influence of social work education on the profession is unquestionable. When the New York School for Social Work began 100 years ago, the curriculum was not that different in structure, but fundamentally different in substance. Today's social worker needs a vast array of skills and knowledge to practice as direct practitioners with individuals, families, groups, communities and organizations. The traditional methods of field instruction and classroom instruction are changing to adopt innovative teaching approaches. For example, distance learning may bring the social work curriculum back to the agencies where social work was first taught 100 years ago. Practitioners will be doing all recordings on computers which raises new issues about confidentiality. Social work educators need to search for more effective ways of teaching students to meet the challenges of tomorrow where social workers are expected to be ethical practitioners, multicultural experts, critical thinkers, skilled researchers and evaluators, policy analysts and political activists. All social workers will be called upon to contribute creative solutions to complex social problems; construct new approaches to social work management, direct practice, and supervision; develop alternative service delivery systems; and humanize the work place.
Perhaps the worst thing social work has done in its history is to try to be all things to all people, but social work can no longer be considered a second-rate profession. Considering how much of a head start other professions have had on social work, this profession and its hundreds of thousands of social workers has accomplished a great deal towards improving the human condition in just 100 years.
NASW is just about 40 years old, and I have been a social worker for only a quarter of a century. Some members are just beginning their professional social work careers. As a profession and an association we can use this 100th anniversary as an opportunity to reaffirm and recommit to the ideals and values of social work, and to advocate for a new century that will put people first and the enhancement of the human condition foremost on the American agenda.