Forrester Blanchard Washington and his advocacy for African Americans in the new deal

Forrester Blanchard Washington (1887-1963) was an African American social work pioneer recruited to the first New Deal administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as director of Negro Work in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. This role gave Washington a platform from which to object strenuously to the development of social policies that were predisposing African Americans to chronic dependence on welfare programs instead of creating equal opportunities for employment. Washington's policy analysis and recommendations represent social work's advocacy for equal employment opportunity long before the related civil rights legislation in the 1960s. An analysis is offered to explain Washington's decision to abort his federal career when the political agenda of the Roosevelt administration began to conflict with his values and professional goals. His actions are exemplary of resignation in protest--an aspect of advocacy more often discussed than used. This article is based on Washington's writings and materials found in the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland.

Situational approaches to direct practice: origin, decline, and re-emergence

During the 1890s and the first three decades of the 20th century, social work in the United States developed a community-based direct practice approach to family assistance and social reform. The basis for this method was a situational view of social life that emphasized the use of interpersonal and transactional methods to achieve social and individual change. This article highlights important aspects of the genesis and development of this approach, emphasizing especially the contributions of its foremost exponents: Jane Addams, Mary Richmond, Ada Sheffield, Eduard Lindeman, and Mary Parker Follett. Also included are comments about current attempts in social work to revive this perspective for use by contemporary practitioners.

Zelda Foster and her contributions to social work in end-of-life care

This article is both a memoir of one social worker's professional collaboration with Zelda Foster and a tribute to Zelda's legacy in the form of an educational resource on end-of-life care. It reviews achievements of Zelda Foster in social work practice and teaching related to death and dying. Resources presented in this article were supported by the Soros Foundation's Project on Death in America, a funded grant project to which Zelda contributed. The end-of-life care education, training and informational tools discussed in this article are examples of ongoing efforts in the social work profession to improve the lives of the dying and bereaved.

Harriet Tubman's last work: the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes

This article focuses on the important contributions the venerable Harriet Tubman made to the field of housing for older persons and other populations at risk. It uses an historical approach to document the importance of early housing and self-help initiatives in the African American community. It embraces Harriet Tubman and other early housers for their good works and acknowledges them as contributors to the rich legacy of community social work practice and its sage principles of empowerment and self-help. The article presents a nexus between the current housing status of older Blacks and the double jeopardy status imposed by historical discrimination.

[The health and sanitary care in Kingdom of Poland at the turn of 19th century]

The subject of the article is a description of the organization and the development of the forms of medical health and sanitary care realized by social-philanthropic institutions and state administration at the turn of the 19th century in the territories of the Kingdom of Poland. The forms of health and sanitary care were classified into those which should be organized maintained by the state, that is social and industrial insurances, industrial plant hospitals, outpatient clinics for workers, for prevention and control of infections and venereal diseases. The other groups included of social care. Social-philanthropic institutions and various individuals tried to provide all possible medical health care to the poorest part of the population and the unemployed. It tried to help children adolescents working in gainful occupations, children born out of wedlock, patients with so called social diseases. It was well known that this health and sanitary care was insufficient and ineffective.

The development of palliative care programs in the Veterans Administration: Zelda Foster's legacy

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been a leader in program development and service delivery in the areas of geriatrics, hospice and palliative care for decades. Zelda Foster, MSW, serving as the Chief of Social Work Services at the Brooklyn VA Hospital for almost 20 years, was a force in the early days of the palliative care and hospice movement in the United States, publishing a seminal article in 1965, and contributing through educational initiatives, program development, information dissemination and mentorship of countless social workers. With an early recognition of the demographic imperative of aging veterans, the VA established a number of innovative programs which have been widely replicated outside of the VA. Zelda Foster was a central figure in the evolution of these programs and a strong and effective advocate for the inclusion of social workers. She deserves much credit for the fact that social workers are now centrally involved in an array of leadership activities in palliative and end-of-life care both within and outside of VA.

Do unions matter? An examination of the historical and contemporary role of labor unions in the social work profession

The attitudes among social workers toward labor unions are a topic of significance. Historically, social workers have had an ambivalent relationship with unions. This article analyzes the extent to which unions matter to social workers and whether unions represent the interests of professional social workers. The relationship between social work and unions is conceptualized as reciprocal in nature. Insights about social workers' current attitudes toward unions are informed through critical analysis of a recent research study that examined attitudes toward unions among social work union members. The authors discuss the potential for a collaborative progressive agenda between the social work profession and labor.

Skills, bravery, courage, and foolhardiness: Seventy-five years of social work in health care in Melbourne, Australia

The lessons from the history of health social work in Melbourne, Victoria can be extrapolated to social work in other parts of Australia and internationally. Based on consultation with social workers, archival material and personal reflections this article traces 75 years of health social work in Melbourne and Victoria within the context of the prevailing social influences. The profession, which was started by local opinion leaders and public demand, is now well established. Initially Australians looked to Britain to guide the new profession, but by the latter part of the twentieth century they increasingly looked to the USA. Many challenges still face health social work. Sharing of knowledge and experience will strengthen social work locally and internationally.

[Did social assistence for handicapped subjects exist in prehistory?]

Paleopathological studies allow not only to describe pathological lesions, but also to relate them with the historical testimonies (written, archaeological, iconographical records) and to reconstruct the social context in which 'ancient patients' lived. In particular, paleopathology allow to establish if a ill or handicapped subject has been the object of social exclusion or if he was cured, nourished and assisted by the other members of the community. The article analyzes some paleopathological case related to the themes of handicap, injuries, serious inabilities of Prehistorical individues.

The role of voluntary organizations in the care of the elderly in Norway

This paper describes the contributions of voluntary organizations to the provision of social services for the elderly in Norway. It presents data on the volume of social services provided by Norwegian voluntary organizations and discusses the recognition that the central government gives to such organizations, as well as the conditions for supporting voluntary organizations in the Norwegian welfare state. The analysis indicates the scope of the contributions made by these organizations in caring for older people. Though the size of contributions made by the voluntary organizations has been declining rapidly in recent years, the Norwegian government still recognizes their past contributions and the role they can play within the framework of the welfare state's social services for the aged.

[Psychoanalysis in the advanced vocational training of social workers, Berlin 1930-1933 (Verein Jugendheim)]

The Verein Jugendheim in Berlin-Charlottenburg was a holding organisation of welfare institutions and of training facilities for members of the caring professions. In 1928 it founded a Soziales Institute that offered various courses for advanced vocational training. In those courses depth psychology - mainly represented by the Adlerians, least by the Jungians and increasingly by the Freudians - had a prominent place. The role of the Freudian school was supported by the fact that two staff members of the Jugendheim (Hildegard Buder-Schenck, Ursula Graf [Laessig]) started their analytic training at that time. The main teachers of psychoanalysis at the Institute were Siegfried Bernfeld, Edith Jacobson and Steffi Bornstein; notes take by a student at one of Jacobson's seminars are documented in this paper. In general, in the psychoanalytic courses there seems to have been a shift from academic teaching of theory to case oriented supervision. The presence of psychoanalysis in the training program of the Jugendheim indicates the beginning of an institutional rapprochement between pedagogy or social work and psychoanalysis in Berlin, analogous to earlier developments in Vienna. The rise of the Nazis put a stop to this promising, yet hitherto completely unknown, chapter of history.

[Forms of taking care of a mother and a child in Warsaw on the pages of Polish monthly "Opiekun Społeczny" published from 1936 to 1939]

The issue of care of a mother and a child appeared to be nothing new during the period of II Rzeczpospolita. It used to be one of the most vital problems of social policy of the country. It was the local governments, gmina. poviat's unions as well as the voivodship. Social Security Committees responsibility to protect motherhood and care for children imposed on them by the 16th August 1923 act. The regulation of Department of Public Health the city of Warsaw from 1929 stated in the 1st and that aforementioned care included: "sanitary, medical and nursery care provided by Department of Public Health information bureaus or the social institutions subsided by the magistrat and authorized by it". "Opiekun Społeczny" as the monthly having dealt with the social policy issues in the capital city, in detail discussed certain problems of social and health care for a family, explained the valid legislation and informed about the new Health Department acts. The magazine was above all addressed to Health Department workers and social workers. The issue of care for a mother and a child used to be the leading subject-matter of the magazine since the beginnings of its existence. It was numerously pointed out that taking care for motherhood and a baby, a child at pre-school and school age and the youth is the main job of the care department. The material and moral relief used to be lead by the social workers. As far as the legal assistance is concerned, it was the special information bureaus workers' organized by Zarzad Miejski and "Osiedle" committee responsibility to help mothers in need. One of the most essential problems on one hand and the most difficult on the other faced by the capital city welfare was the problem of illegitimate children, especially the abandoned ones constituting a numerous group. The welfare's aim was to decrease their number and improve their living conditions. The main principle was to make each mother to raise her child on her own. That is why the abandoned children places were reorganized and transformed into the mother and child homes. A new institution was also created--it was the care for abandoned mothers existing near the workplaces. It were the principles then to create conditions efficient enough for the mother to live on her own. The material and legal relief was provided as well as mothers were helped in finding job. Taking care for a mother and her child used to be the field of social institutions. There were various social organizations such as Polish Care for a Child Committee, Polish Drop of Milk Society, Polish Society for Alcoholism Fight and so forth. It was their main aim to help mothers and children in poor living conditions.

Profile of a leader: pioneer government advisor: Laura Holland, RN, RRC, CBE, LLD (1883 - 1956)

Laura Holland, nurse and social worker, became one of Canada's first official "nurse advisors" to government when she was appointed Advisor to the B.C. Ministry of Health and Welfare from 1938 to 1945. Before that appointment, she had served, with distinction, as a Nursing Sister in World War I, brought innovative Red Cross and public health advances to northern Ontario, reformed Children's Aid services in Vancouver and B.C., and started a new department that combined nursing/social work in the field during the Great Depression of the 1930s. She was an extraordinary leader.

Dame Cicely Saunders has demonstrated nursing's value

Every year at the BJN's Clinical Practice Awards I have the honour of presenting the BJN Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous winners have been Doreen Norton and Nancy Roper. This year the recipient was the leader of the modern palliative care movement, Dame Cicely Saunders. The founder of St Christopher's Hospice, the first research and teaching facility for the care of people with incurable disease, Dame Cicely has dedicated her life to alleviating the physical, psychological, social and spiritual suffering of people in the terminal phases of illness.

Reflections on the contribution of Frances Sheldon

Frances Sheldon died on 26 February 2004 at the age of 64 years. In this short article, we will offer some reflections on her contribution to palliative care and consider what we can learn from her legacy.

Social work and end-of-life care for older people: a historical perspective

End-of-life issues became increasingly complicated during the 20th century as profound shifts occurred in who died, how they died, and when they died. This article reviews societal changes related to death in the United States and chronicles the developments in social work practice with and for dying people and their families in the 20th century, leading up to the 1993 policy statement of the National Association of Social Workers on end-of-life decision making, which reinforced that client self-determination, a fundamental principle of social work, should apply to people planning for their deaths or undergoing a dying process. After identifying limitations in policies and practices, suggestions are offered to promote competent social work practice and enhance end-of-life care, particularly with reference to the dying process of older people.