Eugenics in the community: gendered professions and eugenic sterilization in Alberta, 1928-1972

Scholarship on Alberta's Sexual Sterilization Act (1928-1972) has focused on the high-level politics behind the legislation, its main administrative body, the Eugenics Board, and its legal legacy, overlooking the largely female-dominated professions that were responsible for operating the program outside of the provincial mental health institutions. This paper investigates the relationship between eugenics and the professions of teaching, public health nursing, and social work. It argues that the Canadian mental hygiene and eugenics movements, which were fundamentally connected, provided these professions with an opportunity to maintain and extend their professional authority.

The first lady almoner: the appointment, position, and findings of Miss Mary Stewart at the Royal Free Hospital, 1895-99

This article examines the professional roots of the hospital almoner, a position which has been widely neglected in medical history. The first almoner was Miss Mary Stewart, a former Charity Organization Society employee, appointed at the Royal Free Hospital of central London in 1895. The Royal Free was a charitable hospital which offered free medical treatment to patients considered morally deserving but unable to afford medical care elsewhere. The role expected of Stewart was to means test patients in order to ensure that only those deemed "appropriate" received free medical treatment, and to establish the extent to which the hospital was being abused by those who could afford to contribute toward their medical care. While in office, Stewart continually reshaped the role of almoner. She fashioned the position into that of a medical social worker and undertook such duties as referring patients to other means of medical and charitable assistance, visiting patients' homes, and training almoners for positions at other voluntary hospitals. Through the examination of Mary Stewart's Almoners Report Book, this article considers the circumstances of her appointment, the role she performed, and the findings of her investigations.

Grassroots responsiveness to human rights abuse: history of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights

The purpose of this article is to discuss how a community agency based in Washtenaw County, the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigration Rights (WICIR), emerged in response to increasing punitive immigration practices and human rights abuses toward the Latino community. The article discusses how WICIR is engaged in advocacy, community education on immigration issues, and political action toward a more humane immigration reform. Detailed examples of human rights abuses and the WICIR activities described in response to the abuses serve as illustrations of social work advocacy, education, and policy formulation that affect the general public, policymakers, and law enforcement officials.

Seeing the countryside through medical eyes: social service reports in the making of a sickly nation

This article explores sanitary reports sent by early generations of social service year medical students who wrote about their first encounters with rural diseases and the people who suffered them. By exploring what was reported we see how, instead of questioning the roots of rural illness, poverty, and the hunger that they witnessed, young doctors often unwittingly reinforced urban prejudices and concerns that blamed indigenous Mexicans for their own poverty and diseased status. Because sanitary reports were authored by medical students, they were often perceived as 'scientific' evidence of the living conditions and unhealthy choices of rural Mexicans. The author argues that as in the case of travel narratives, medical students' written assessments influenced how the rest of society came to understand rural Mexico.

The founder of the Friends Foundation--Tessie Soi

Tessie Soi is well known in Papua New Guinea and beyond for her work with HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome) patients, including through the Friends Foundation, an organization that focuses on helping families affected by HIV and AIDS. This article explores Tessie's early life and childhood, providing insight into some of the values she learned from her parents. Providing details about the Friends Foundation and the Orphan Buddy Systems program, a program Tessie established to support AIDS orphans, the article offers insight into Tessie's beliefs and compassion, simultaneously highlighting the value she places on her family.

Turning negatives into positives: the life and work of Naomi Yupae

This article explores the life story of Naomi Yupae, one of the founders and the first executive director of Eastern Highlands Family Voice (EHFV), an organization based in Goroka, Papua New Guinea (PNG). A proud Bena Bena woman, Naomi was one of only a handful of women in the pre-Independence era to gain a scholarship to pursue secondary schooling in Australia. The article discusses Naomi's experiences as a student and her determination to come back to PNG to maintain her cultural connections with her people and contribute to development in PNG. Naomi's professional contributions as a researcher and social worker are discussed and evaluated.

The transformative potential of social work's evolving practice in dementia care

Social workers in diverse service systems throughout the United States encounter many opportunities for improving quality of life for people with dementia and their families. Yet practice with this population is unclearly defined and a core set of competencies for such practice does not yet exist. Instead, it is shaped by roles within aging and health systems. These roles are informed by a biomedical disease model of dementia. This article examines social work practice and its connection to evolving views on aging and senility throughout the 20th century. New directions for practice are recommended to improve services for individuals with dementia.

Moving among friends: the establishment of professional social work education at the University of Melbourne, 1929-1941

Despite the reputation of Melbourne, Australia, as a socially advanced city in the early twentieth century, professional social work training did not commence at what was then the city's only university, until 1941. This article describes the strategies by a coalition of wealthy philanthropists, welfare organizations, medical practitioners, social workers, and The University of Melbourne itself to establish such professional training. It does so with exploration of the hitherto unrecognized influence of New York Social Work and the unique intellectual leadership of the director of training of the founding Social Work course in Melbourne, Miss Jocelyn S. Hylsop.

Economic inequality and economic crisis: a challenge for social workers

To social workers, extreme economic inequality is primarily a violation of social justice, but this article shows how growing economic inequality since the mid-1970s was not only unjust, but also dysfunctional to the U.S. economy and linked to the recent economic crisis with its devastating effects, particularly on the social work clientele. The article identifies interrelated changes in ideology, the market economy, and government policies since the mid-1970s; contrasts the political economy of this period with the preceding post-World War II decades when the trend was toward a "shared prosperity"; and shows how increased economic inequality and political consequences that undermined democracy itself contributed to the economic meltdown. The analysis has implications for the direction of social reform and for broadening the constituency of social movements in pursuit of the social work mission of social justice. How social workers can contribute to such movements and to a reduction of economic and political inequality is explored.

The nurse as a social worker

In the early twentieth century the role of the public health nurse (PHN) was expanding to meet the needs of individuals, families, and communities. Among the ideas discussed in the early nursing literature was that of the social nurse. This role was conceptualized as a combined nurse and social worker. Much of the PHNs work was with people of the poorer classes who needed assistance with both the medical aspects of their disease, as well as help with social needs such as food, rent money, and bedding. In this reprint from The Visiting Nurse Quarterly (1911), Ellen La Motte, Nurse-in-Chief with the Tuberculosis Division of the Baltimore Health Department, argued for this combined role based on economic efficiency. As she pointed out, it was "economic waste" to have two sets of workers going into homes when the nurse was capable, with additional education, of carrying out both roles. Additionally, from La Motte's perspective the only way the nurse could move beyond her role as the "physician's handmaiden" was through "social training" that prepared her for a broader scope of practice than that received in the hospital-based nursing schools. In the end, however, she left it open to nurses as "reasonable beings" to determine the direction the profession would take on this issue. La Motte's words provide historical context for issues contemporary public health nursing leaders are addressing, such as inter-professional boundaries between nurses and public health workers, reductions in the public health workforce, and economic constraints faced by the healthcare system. The Institute of Medicine mandate for inter-professional practice within the healthcare system, however, presents opportunities for exploring new roles and practice models for nurses in conjunction with our partners in public health.

[The historical environment from which Social Service emerged]

The historic background in which Social Service appeared dates back to the time when L. Cárdenas (1934-1940) was president of Mexico. In 1935, the reaction of the University to the reformation of article 3 was considered as an antirevolutionary behavior and was seen as opposite to the State's education project. Our history begins in this scenario. During L. Chico Goerne's term, the University signs a new agreement with the Government in which, among other things, the Social Service as a mandatory requirement to obtain a university degree is established. Thus, the mandatory Social Service organized by G. Baz, director of the Facultad de Medicina, who reinforced it as the University rector. Since the establishment of the Social Service, the University did not have to fight for financial support and also restored its prestige and social usefulness before the government that used to exclude the University from its project.

The challenges of health care reform for hospital social work in the United States

This article examines the potential impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 on the practice of hospital social work in the United States and its implications for social work education and training. It briefly traces the history of hospital social work, outlines some contemporary issues in the health care field, particularly those that create persistent health disparities, summarizes the major provisions of the Act that have implications for social work practice, and discusses how social workers in hospital settings might respond effectively to the changes produced by the legislation.

Faith-based social services: saving the body or the soul? A research note

Faith-based organizations might be ideal social service providers, claiming to transform clients' lives with holistic support while meeting immediate needs. While organizations have such goals, their success is impacted by constituencies with differing goals for the organization. Clients with goals not commensurate with an organization's may compromise its ability to attain its goals. Three questions are examined here: What are the goals of faith-based service providers? When asked what they think about the services, do clients share the organizational goals? Are organizations likely to meet either set of goals? Homeless persons patronizing faith-based soup kitchens were interviewed; service activities of organizations were observed. Clients' goals focused on survival in their current situation. Organizations' goals ranged from meeting clients' immediate needs to transforming clients through spiritual restoration. Congregations studied met clients' immediate needs. However, clients' accommodational goals were potentially problematic for organizations with spiritual goals.

Girls Incorporated of Alameda County at 50: a voice for girls (1958-2008)

Girls Incorporated of Alameda County is nonprofit human service organization that has delivered education, counseling, and advocacy services to girls aged 6 to 18 for 50 years. The organization began as a small, local girls club and has grown into a large multi-faceted service delivery organization attached to a national governing body. The history of Girls Incorporated of Alameda County introduces struggles in relation to external and internal factors that altered the way that the agency financed and managed and exemplifies the important role of nonprofit leadership. The organization's many accomplishments have also presented multiple challenges, particularly related to the changing roles of women in American society.

What is a "health" professional? The changing relationship of occupational therapists and social workers to therapy and healthcare in Quebec, 1940-1985

Studies regarding the medicalization process generally focus on the way various physical and psychological conditions have been identified as "health" problems, within specific historical contexts. Less well known is how the therapeutic roles of certain "health" professionals were also a result of the confluence of particular historical events. By comparing the professional trajectories of Quebec's occupational therapists and hospital social workers from 1940 to 1985, this article demonstrates how professionals originally outside of the world of health care created new therapeutic roles for themselves within the constantly expanding institutional health care system.

The Unity Council at 40: a pioneering community development and service organization (1967-2007)

The Spanish Speaking Unity Council (Unity Council) is a community development nonprofit organization that was established in 1964, during the civil rights movement, by a group of community members who wanted to ensure the political representation of the Latino community. Over its 45-year history, the Unity Council has grown into a $12 million community development organization that delivers a range of programming, including social services and employment training as well as facilitating the development and support of local businesses, low-income housing, and neighborhood improvement activities. The history of the agency presents the multiple challenges and rewards associated with development in an underserved community and an example of the important role that leadership plays in the growth of a nonprofit.

Larkin Street Youth Services: helping kids get off the street for good (1982-2007)

Larkin Street Youth Services is a pioneering nonprofit organization that was established in 1981 to serve the growing urban homeless and runaway youth population. What began as a neighborhood effort has evolved into a $12 million organization over the course of its 25-year history. Larkin Street Youth Services delivers a continuum of services to homeless youth including counseling, housing, education, employment, and HIV services. The agency has received significant local and national attention for the success of its targeted program model and continuum of care services. The history of Larkin Street Youth Services provides an example of the important role of internal operations in an agency's ability to re-invent itself and respond to a larger community need.

Jewish Family and Children's Services: a pioneering human service organization (1850-2008)

Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties is a pioneering nonprofit human service organization that has delivered services for 157 years. Over the course of its history, the organization has transformed itself from an all-volunteer agency delivering aid to immigrant families during the Gold Rush era to a $30 million nonprofit human service organization offering a full-range of services to adults, children, and families. The history of Jewish Family and Children's Services sheds light on the importance of strong leadership, strategic planning, external relationships, and strong donor support.

Black Adoption Placement and Research Center at 25: placing African-American children in permanent homes (1983-2008)

The Black Adoption Research and Placement Center is a nonprofit organization delivering culturally specific adoption and foster care services. The organization developed as a response to concerns in the African-American community about the high numbers of African-American children entering and not exiting the public foster care system. The organization has undergone significant transformations over its 25-year history in relation to social, political, and economic changes that have altered the ways that the agency finances and delivers services. The history of Black Adoption Research and Placement Center presents an organization that has weathered many challenges because of its strong leadership, its committed governing body, its external relationships, and its internal operations.

On Lok: a pioneering long-term care organization for the elderly (1971-2008)

On Lok is a pioneering nonprofit organization that has delivered services to the frail and elderly since its founding in 1971. The agency began as a grassroots effort focused on improving the health care available to older adults living independently in the community. Over its 40-year history, On Lok has evolved into a $70 million nonprofit human service organization with a national reputation for innovation as a leading provider of care to frail elderly. The agency has developed its own model of care that has been replicated in cities around the country. The history of On Lok represents the important impact that donor and community support plays in an organization's long-term success.

Asian Community Mental Health Services at 35: a pioneering ethnic organization (1973-2008)

Asian Community Mental Health Services is a nonprofit organization that delivers mental health services to primarily Asian and Pacific Islander communities. From its early beginnings and over its 35-year history, the agency has had to overcome numerous challenges, including gaining legitimacy as a culturally specific nonprofit, combating stigma surrounding mental health issues within the Asian Pacific Islander community, building resources to fund service delivery, and developing an educated and culturally sensitive workforce. The history of the organization highlights the multiple challenges and rewards of developing a culturally specific nonprofit in an urban area as well as the important role that internal operations play in relation to nonprofit expansion and growth.

The Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement: a pioneering multi-ethnic human service organization (1971-2008)

The Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement is a nonprofit organization established in 1971 to defend the legal rights of African-Americans living in its community. Over the years, the agency diversified its services to include mental health and substance abuse treatment, violence prevention, youth programming, and HIV services. The organization has overcome multiple challenges during its 37-year history in relation to social, political, and economic changes that have influenced the way the organization has financed and delivered its services. The history of the organization presents a collaborative approach to community problem-solving and exemplifies the important role that external relationships play in relationship to nonprofit growth and survival.