Historical Perspective

Human Services

Chapter Three

Burger & Youkeles, (2003)

Introduction

n When people need help to whom should they turn?

n Who, in society should be “my brother’s keeper”?

n Who should be helped and who should be left to their own devices?

Prehistoric Civilizations

n

n .

n Evil spirits were given credit for anything that could not be easily explained.

n Animism: spirits inhabit inanimate objects.

n KEY POINT: Deviant behavior is a product of what is the norm for behavior at a given point in time.

Early Civilizations

n Pythagoras: brain is center of intelligence

n Hippocrates: Natural explanation

¨ diseases were primarily physiological or organic in origin.

¨ Developed psychiatric labels: melancholia, mania, epilepsy

¨ Treatment: vegetable diets, exercise, and tranquil lifestyle

n Even as early physician and philosophers shape views on human nature, practice remained cruel and isolating. Family & wealth often determined fate.

n Then Christianity emerged and the spiritual explanation returned to the forefront of understanding.

The Middle Ages

n Exorcism re-emerged as the prevalent treatment.

n As the Church gain power it also became sanctuaries for poor and infirmed.

n Church espoused belief that the wealthy should provide for the poor.

n Social roles of “rich and poor” became ingrained.

n .

n Power struggles between Church and state ensued (tithes).

The Renaissance

n Tradespeople became the middle class.

n Contemporary human services roots: social welfare needs means feeding and sheltering needy people.

Since the Renaissance

n 16th century: The Elizabethan Poor Law

¨ A system for providing shelter and care for the poor.

¨ Really a system for controlling social structure

n Could work: workhouses

n Could not work: almshouse

¨

¨ Early forerunner of _________________

Industrial Revolution

n 1800’s brought human's mastery of machines.

n Protestant Work Ethic: hard work, thereby accumulation of wealth led to a virtuous life.

n Calvin: God punishes the poor, leave them to suffer.

n Spencer: Social Darwinism: let them die off in natural order

n Most helping programs still have controlling the masses as a core reason for helping.

Early Reform Movements Late 1800/Early 1900’s

n Settlement House movement: Responsibility of society to help, and held the human services perspective: attitude it was the environmental circumstances rather than personal inadequacy.

n Hull-house, Chicago, Jane Adams: birth of contemporary social work

¨ Using Hull house as the hub, she created a comprehensive network of services in the neighborhood.

n Progressive or Social Justice Movement: Change through political action and legislative reform.

¨ Liberal ideas, minimum wage, pension systems, six day work week, unemployment and child labor laws.

The Depression and WWII

n 1930’s

¨ Stock market crash

¨ Relationship between circumstance and human problems became clearer.

¨ FDR’s New Deal

¨ Social Security Act

n 1940’s

¨ Conservatism emerged

¨ “too much help robs incentive”

¨ World War II veterans needed help

¨ Family structure changed

Social Unrest: 1960-1980

n Civil unrest: war, poverty, social oppression, women’s rights

n War on Poverty increased opportunity but did not eliminate poverty and discrimination.

n 1970-1980 Massive programs across the lifespan

Human Services and Mental Illness

n Human Services:

¨ Assistance based on socio-economic needs

¨ Issued based:

n Poverty

n

n Work skills

n Mental Health Services

¨ Largely based on pathology model

n Biological origins

n Environmental Influences

Mental Health Services Since the Renaissance

n Mental health is directly influenced by social conditions, adequacy of shelter food and income.

n Mental health is also influenced by individual life experiences, biology and individual/family coping.

Early Asylums

n Asylum

¨ A place for protection and shelter

¨ FOR WHOM?

n The mentally ill person?

n Society?

¨ Sometimes these were people who held views different from the government not necessarily those with a true illness.

The best and the worst

n 1409-current day

¨ Valencia, Spain

¨ Admission was voluntary

n 1547: St. Mary’s of Bethlehem (Bedlam)

¨ Good intention but in practice became a dungeon for the deviant.

¨ Locked up, cruel treatment, lack of food, long term periods of changing to walls.

Era of Humanitarian Reform

n In late 1770’s early 1780’s a brief era of reform occurred

n This movement was also called ______

n It started in Europe, Frenchman Pinel started unchaining some patients and tried to cure them through good care.

n Dorothy Dix was also a strong force in the reform movement. She gathered public support for the much need humanization.

n She helped to create 32 state mental hospitals where the emphasis was caring for sick people

The downside to the state mental hospital system

n During 1900’s emphasis became the individual treatment plan but maintained need for hospitalization

Freud’s influence

n By the 1920’s and 1930’s his theories became so widely accepted that they were adopted as the treatment of choice by most institutions.

n The second mental health revolution began with ____________.

Deinstitutionalization & Decentralization

n Early 1950’s brought the development of ___________ and again changed who treatment was provided.

n ___________ was the policy that care should be given in familiar community settings.

n ____________ meant housing patients from the same communities in the same wards.

Community Mental Health Movement

n Traditional System

¨ Focus on treatment

¨ Distance created isolation from families

¨ Long term, individual therapy model

¨ Treatment provided by a short supply of psychiatrists

n Community System

¨ Focus on prevention

¨ Family becomes a resource and focus of the treatment

¨ Innovative methods, family therapy, crisis hotlines, outreach programs

¨ Treatment provided by psychologist, social workers, counselors, and various paraprofessional staff

Pros and cons

n Advocates of the community mental health system point to:

n Critics counterpoint to :

Advent of the Generalist Human Services Worker

n Original term (1960’s) _____________

n Common characteristic of the role:

¨ Direct and frequent contact

¨ Variety of work settings

¨ Multi-technique

Activities of a General Human Service Worked

n In home/In community services

n Development of community support and programs

The Future

n While social problem have remained the same across the ages, contemporary society has become far more complex.

n Technology adds to our lives yet often increases anxiety (e.g. replaced workers, and the knowledge of nuclear war)

n Funding is being reduced and agencies must find news ways to provide services.

n Human services in one of the largest growing job classifications.

n Newest challenges are to provide multi-ethnic and culturally aware services.

Chapter Review

n Please read and review the chart on pages 148 and 149 in the Burger and Youkeles Text (6th edition)

n Summarize what you have learned from the history of human and mental services as you form your answer to the essay question on helping.