BRIEF HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRIC SOCIAL WORK

1. HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRIC
SOCIAL WORK
YATHEESH BHARADWAJ H S
1ST YEAR MPHIL PSW
DIMHANS

2. Historical development of social work
Role of church
State responsibility
(Statutes of Labourers)
Elizebethan poor law-
Able bodied/impotent/dependent
Social insurance and allied
service,1942
–want, Disease, Ignorance,
Squalor and Idleness

3. Industrialisation in England and birth of
COS
 Industrialization -18th century
 Emergence of slums
 Poverty increased
 Low standard of living
 Vulnerable groups extended
 Social problems increased
 “Poor laws were indeed poor laws”

4. Cont…
 Charity Organisation Societies- 1869 – England
 1873- The Long Depression in America Buffalo, New York
 proliferation of private philanthropies
 to organise charitable endeavour and prevent poverty
 deserving poor and undeserving poor
 scientific approach scientific charity
 establishment of centralized “clearinghouses” or registration bureaus
 friendly visitors  trained visitorstrained agents paid agents

5. Settlement movement
 Toynbee Hall, established in London in 1884 by Canon Samuel Barnett.
 United States in 1886 establishment of University Settlement
 pioneered in nursing services, clinics, milk stations.
 established camps and playgrounds.
 They taught English and citizenship.
 Kindergartens started there, as did experiments in trade and vocational training
 Group work approach
 Social work pioneer Jane Addams was one of the first women to receive a Nobel
Peace Prize, which was awarded in 1931.

6. Felt needs struggle for professional
status
 Engineering & Medicines were doing wonders
 Strong theoretical knowledge+ skills were needed
 Proper foundation was needed
 Social concern
 Job opportunities
 Earning a livelihood
 Recognition/identity/We feeling
 Occupation v/s profession

7. Social work education
 1896-1897 New York Charity Organization Society gave a six week course
called “Summer School in Philanthropic Work.”
 first two-year full-time teaching in social work as early as 1899 in Amsterdam
(theory + practical)
 one-year training course in social work for young women, initiated in Germany by
Alice Salomon in 1899.
 1900: The term ‘Social Workers’ was coined by Simon Pattern
 1903 -Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy

8.  1904-Boston School for Training Social Workers(Simmons College School of Social
Work.)
 1904 the New York COS initiated a year program
 The first institution to be established in Asia was the Department of Sociology and
Social Work, Yenching University in 1922 (stopped due to communist revolution)
 Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was established in 1936- Clifford
Manshardt director

9. History of psychiatric social
work

10. Brief History of Psychiatry
Primitive or pre classical period
Classical period
Institutional & de-institutional period

11. Primitive & pre classical period
 believed to be act of the ‘devil’ i. e. ‘Against God’
 ‘ Mentally ill’ were considered evil & described as witches
 Charak Samhita designated Psychiatry as ‘Bhuta Vidya’
 Severely punished to get rid of evil spirit
 Faith healing – inhuman treatment

12. Classical period
 Humane and rational approach
 Scientific explanation to mental illness related to brain, body fluids
 Main contributors- pythogorus, Hippocrates,plato
Medival period (5th to 15th century)
Inhumane treatment
Few institutions

13. Renaisssance period
More scientific temper, rational, psychological causes tried to elicit
modern period
 Witness revolution in the fields of psychiatry
 Theories and approaches
 Institutionalisation – public mental asylums arised in Britain
(Jail type condition)

14. In india also….
 1745- Bombay asylum was built
 1787- Calcutta asylum for insane Europeans
 1793- madras private lunatic asylum (Daltan’s madhouse)
established
 1795- 1st lunatic asylum for indian sepoys in monghr

15. Institutionalization in USA
 No Efforts Till 19th Century
 Dorothea Lynde Dix  American advocate on behalf of
the indigent mentally ill
 travel throughout the country to lobby for the construction of
asylums by the states and even the federal government.
 founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment
of the mentally ill.
 Started dumping the patients no facilities- pressure on the
psychaitrists

16. Mental hygiene movement
 ”A Mind That Found Itself”(1908) by Clifford Whittingham Beers
+
 Adolf meyer - main theoretical contribution was his idea
of ergasiology, coined the term mental hygiene
 Common sense approach- keeping the patients records
 Dr. vidya sagar – camp approach – put up tents to cater for more patients
along with family members. Influencial in removing stigma of mental
health

17. de-institutionisation
 Process of replacing long term stay with the short term and
community based efforts
 Abuse cases + pathetic conditions got social attention and socio-
political campaigns
 Op basis also started
 Development of pharmacology
 Role and importance of family
 Increased no. of cases- shortage of staff need
 Team approach

18. Origin of psw as part of
deinstitutionalization
 Interest of the psychiatrists shifted from institutional
management to mental hygiene- in the prevention and
the control of mental illness
 Aftercare and community care had to be given and social
aspects of mental illness were needed to be studied
 Increased case burden for the psychiatrists- couldn’t do
detailed study.
 Importance was given to bio-psycho-social aspect also

19. Origin of psw as part of
deinstitutionalization
 As patients returned to the community, there were many problems
1. Unemployement
2. Poverty’
3. Family and community didn’t accept
4. Stigma
5. Lack of support
This created new challenges
Professional social workers who are known for social interventions were employed to
mitigate these problems or demands

20.  1904  adolph Meyer of the Manhattan State Hospital encouraged his wife to visit
the families of his patients for the purposes of helping to broaden the clinical
understanding of social forces affecting the patients’ lives and "reaching out to the
sources of sickness “
 social services began to be part of the treatment in a number of neurological and
psychiatric hospitals in Boston and New York
 1905- Massachusetts general hospital established social service department case
history+ liason

21.  1906- psychiatric social work was initiated by new York charity aid association @
manhatten hospital  home visit/collateral information
 1906- Miss E. H. Horton, after graduating from the New York School of Philanthropy
(now Columbia University School of Social Work), became the first professional
psychiatric social caseworker to work in a state-Supported institution for the mentally ill
 1913- boston psychopathic hospital established social service department under the
leadership of Dr. Ernest Sutherland
 Dr. Mary Jarret- head of the dept.
 Assist in study and treatment of mental disorders
 Help patients in normal living
 Public awareness

22.  The term PSW--- “KINGDOM OF EVILS” by Dr. Ernest Sutherland and
Dr.jarret
 1917- mary Richmond – “social diagnosis”
 Smith College created the School for Social Work in 1918 under the name
Smith Psychiatric Training School.
 The school grew out of a summer program that prepared clinical social
workers to address the increased needs of World War I Veterans suffering
from what was then called shell shock
 By 1920- 42 hospitals in US had social service department

23. Child guidance clinics & the role of PSW
1920- William haley started CGC & emphasis on social aspect -
 psychiatric social workers
1922- American association of social workers
 Community/ social psychiatry

24.  in 1955 the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, along with several
other specialist organizations of social workers, merged with social work’s over-all
membership organization, the National Association of Social Workers. The
assumption was that all good direct service to clients and patients should be
psychodynamically informed
 "Psychiatric social work" came specifically to mean social work under psychiatric
auspices.

25. In india….
 Lunatic Asylum act, Act 36 of 1856
 Indian Lunacy Act, Act 4 of 1912
 lunatic asylum was changed to mental hospital in 1920.
 1946, the Bhore committee recommended changes in Indian Lunacy Act 1912,
as it had become outdated
 Berkeley hill in 1929, founded the Indian Association for mental hygiene
 The first Psychiatric Social worker was appointed in the Child Guidance Clinic
started in 1937 by Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of social work (now
Known as Tata Institute Of Social Sciences) in Mumbai.

26.  On the recommendation of Bhore committee (in 1946),
 1948- yerwada hospital – appointment of psw
 1952-jj hospital
 Dr. Sharadha Menon- growth of psw in south India
 All India Institute Mental Health was set up in 1954, which became the National
Institute of Mental Health And Neurosciences in 1974 at Bangalore
1962- delhi school of social work started a specialization in psw

27. Laws and programmes
 Mental health act 1987 – replace- indian lunacy act 1912
 Asylum---- hospital
 Lunatic ----- mentally ill person
 Criminal lunatic -----mentally ill prisoner
 Authority – central, state
 License
 Mental health care act 2017 defines Psychiatric social work
 Governments programmes – national mental health programme- 1982