Social Work And Social Welfare

According to (Dulmus & Sowers, 2012, p.106), the history of social work is one of an old religiously grounded ethos of offering, aid and comfort. This shows that social work has been around for quite a long time, helping the unfortunate and it has developed more throughout these past centuries. The profession was largely shaped by Westerns idea and events. (Chenoweth &McAuliffe, 2015, p.32). The ideas and events included could have been war, poverty and other social reforms. That is when social welfare was needed to give aid and help solve these issues. Social work largely expanded in England in the 16th during the Elizabethan poor laws and later on in America between 17 and 18th century (Dulmus & Sowers, p.6). This essay is going to focus on how social work has evolved or changed for the better from the 1960s till present.

Social workers’ commitment to social justice means they want everyone to have a fair and equal opportunity to an assessment. In line with fairness, social workers should tell carers about their right to refuse an assessment as their permission, and not the person receiving care, is needed before the carer’s assessment can commence. In addition, social workers, bound by legislation regarding confidentiality and information sharing, must reserve the carer’s right to privacy whilst uphold their right to a fair hearing. This is achieved by only disclosing carer’s personal details to 3rd parties with consent, unless a safeguarding concern arises.

This act set up local 'parishes' that were responsible for taking care of the poor in their own district. However, the government provided no funds to facilitate this program?the parishes were responsible for levying and collecting taxes to finance their programs. Though it would be considered a very primitive form of welfare by today?s standards, it was a large step toward government-mediated welfare compared to the English system 250 years before that. In 1349, Parliament forbade charity on the grounds that it might encourage laziness. Since then, public attitudes have changed about the responsibility of the citizens and the government to provide for the assistance of the needy. Limited federal assistance was given to war veterans and their families beginning during the Civil War, but large scale assistance to the general needy community was not available for almost 75 more years (Komisar 48). A large contribution toward the assistance of the poor in the United States came during the Progressive movement around the turn of the century. Activist groups championed not only workers rights in the form of unions, but also the right of every citizen to have access to decent living conditions (Komisar 67).

During the start of the 1800s major poor citizens of New York City outer the South bears a resemblance to poor of Europe. These people were majorly widows, orphans, seasonal workers out from season, or persons too sick or too old to do work. Local governments provide them “Outdoor relief” comprising of firewood, food, or slightest amount of cash named as alms, initially from an intellect of communal responsibility or paternalism. State poor Laws innate from customs of English, necessitates cities to care for their poor citizens.

The first federal experiment in social welfare, the government offered support through the bureau to struggling freedmen and their families in the form of medical care, food distribution, and schooling

This paper will explore the practice of international social work and some of the explanations of why it has come about, along with the consequences of internationalization for social workers, their profession and education.

In this paper, I will be discussing of an organization that caters social services and contributes to the social work field. In addition, I will go into details where the organization is financed from and what is the mission of the organization. Moreover, I will discuss the structure that the organizations conduct to accomplished their missions and explain the organization 's different services provided under their organization 's umbrella. Furthermore, I will discuss of the organization accountability to their services, overall impact, and the power in the organization. Lastly, I will explanatory the workers role in the organizations and discuss of my overall experience referring to my future social work profession.

During 1601, England was experiencing a severe economic depression, with large scale unemployment and widespread famine. Queen Elizabeth created a set of laws designed to maintain order of the kingdom: the English Poor Laws.  These laws remained in force for more than 250 years (Social Welfare History Project, 2011). These laws basically distinguished three major categories of dependents: the vagrant, the involuntary unemployed, and the helpless. The laws also set forth ways and means for dealing with each category of dependents. Most important, the laws established the parish (i.e., local government), acting through an overseer of the poor appointed by local officials, as the administrative unit for executing the law (Social Welfare History Project, 2011).

It was described that people perfectly healthy could be seen dead on the next morning. Few people were rich enough to afford a physician. Instead, people relied on the wisdom of a “wise women”. In her home she carried ingredients and medicines to help with people problems. People would write their symptoms down and give it to her to make the medicine. They would also send a urine sample to her. People were so desperate for medicine at the time, that they would go to the barber for help if they had a broken bone. Many people questioned their food and how it interacted with their temper when they first were sick.The government forced parishes to take care of the poor and unemployed.The Justice of Peace would come by and collect money from anybody who owns land in the parish. This idea was used to help out the poor. There were three groups of poor. The first was helpless poor. This included the elderly, sick, and disabled children. The second was the able bodied poor. These people were able to work and wanted to work. The third group were known as Rogues and Vagabonds. This group was targeted by the

According to Jane Adams (n.d), the knowledge imparted gives way to the idea of the significance of preserving the dignity of the people with the intent of self-empowerment. The contributions of this early pioneer offers insights to the development of social innovations, as she transfers her idea of professional advancement, social services, and social reform as a change agent creating social change (History of Social Work, n.d.). Finally, the continued advancement of social work is appropriate through the transference of communications of individuals linked in networks for evoking new ideas, and to broaden the social work practice and its educational experience, beginning with the idealism of our early pioneers (History of Social Work,

During the early nineteenth century poverty was major issue, the Poor Law passed earlier in the Tudor period put responsibility on local parishes to pay tax to help the poor. However, over the years the financial strain on parishes became too much and in 1834 The Poor Amendment Act was passed. This was to help reduce the cost of looking after the poor and it was to stop the payment of tax unless you had special circumstances. If the poor wanted help they had to go in to workhouses and work, in exchange for clothes, food, free healthcare and a few hours of schooling for children. The poor had no choice but to go in there for help. On one hand The Poor Amendment Act 1834 was good as it gave the poor free food, shelter, healthcare and education for their children. However, the conditions in the work houses were made so awful that people would avoid going in there unless they were really desperate. The diet was bad, families were spilt up and the people in there had to wear uniform.

Now this work will attempt to examine the different approaches that feminists apply to social work. According to Collins English Dictionary, “social work” means “social services that give help and advice to the poor, the elderly, and families with problems.” (www.collinslanguage.com). It is very hard to define social work as its work is so varied and sparse within society today. Feminist social workers tend to work more with women and help them to understand and alleviate their problems. Dominelli (1997: 246) postulates “ I define feminist social work as a form of social work practice which takes gendered inequality and it’s elimination as the starting point for working

The history of social welfare begins during colonization. Although there was not social work, there was some form of public assistance. Public assistance during colonization consisted of Early American Poor Laws. During this time the poor were referred to as “paupers” because they were unemployed and were required to wear P’s so they could be identified. The belief during this time was that it was the relative’s

Social Work’s core philosophy and values are centered around social justice and social well-being. Oppression, injustice, discrimination, and violence are antithetical to the social work profession. Social Work believes in strength-based approaches and the person-in-environment perspective to cater the needs and welfare of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society at large. Generally, the target populations for social work are vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed people; however, social workers provide services to people with a wide range of problems, such as poverty, addiction, mental illness, etc. to empower them to meet their own needs. Historically, the social work profession started its operation by providing neighborhood

The Catholic Church took on a more significant role as a” provider of social services from the mid-nineteenth century”(Considine and Dukelow ,2009,p.15. The Church strongly endorsed the principle of Subsidiarity, supporting the belief that areas concerned with provision should be managed at local level, by various community based groups.