Social case work aims to help individuals adjust and develop satisfying human relationships through a one-on-one relationship between a social worker and client. It originated in the US in the early 20th century and was influenced by psychoanalysis. Social case work involves studying the client's problems, assessing contributing factors, and providing interventions and treatment to help the client cope more effectively. Key aspects of case work include building rapport, understanding internal and external problems, strengthening the client's ego, and developing their internal resources.

1. Social Case Work
By
Dr. Gouri Manik Manasa

2. “Social Case Work Celebrating the dignity & worth of
every individual”

3.  Social Case Work, a primary method of social work, is
concerned with the adjustment and development of
individual towards more satisfying human relations.
 Better family life, improved schools, better housing, more
hospitals and medical care facilities, protected economic
conditions and better relations between religious groups help
the individual in his adjustment and development.
 But his adjustment and development depend on the use of
these resources by him. Sometimes due to certain factors,
internal or external, he fails to avail existing facilities.
 In such situations, social caseworker helps him. Thus, social
casework is one to one relationship, which works in helping
the individual for his adjustment and development.

4.  Mary Richmond (1915)
“Social Case work may be defined as the art of doing
different things for and with different people by cooperating
with them to achieve at one and the same time their own
and society’s betterment.”
 Perlman (1957)
“Social Case work is a process used by certain human welfare
agencies to help individuals to cope more effectively with
their problems in social functioning.”

5.  Origin of Case work
 By working with the poor -Social Workers
radically realized that forces within the
individual and forces external to him
contributed for human suffering.
 Though casework as a mode of helping people
on the basis of a person-to-person relationship
was present in every society from ancient times,
the professional method of casework originated in
U.S.A. in the second decade of this century.

6.  One of the earliest organised efforts in U.S.A. to
help the poor was the establishment of the
American Charity Organization Society (1) in
1877 on the pattern of the Charity Organization
of London, which was started seven years earlier.
 Mary Richmond's Contribution to Social Case Work-
 Mary Richmond's book, Social Diagnosis, which
was published in 1917 may be considered
Richmond's Contribution to Social Case Work as the
first book in casework. It set forth a methodology
of helping clients through systematic ways of
assessing their problems and handling them.

7. “The book introduced the principle of individualization and
also acknowledged the client's right of self-determination.
The first training programme for caseworkers was in the
form of summer courses. Then the need for more
substantial training was found necessary and schools of
social work, attached to agencies, came into existence.”

8.  Freudian psychology which emerged in the 1920s
had a strong impact on casework. The new
psychoanalytical knowledge pertaining to human
behaviour was eagerly absorbed by caseworkers
which was found useful in understanding clients
and their problems.
 During the 1940s, caseworkers were exposed to
the formulations on ego psychology based on the
observations of human beings as regard's their
differential coping and adapting abilities in times
of stress. The new studies on human behaviour
brought to light the potentialities of the human
personality for healthy adaptation to life's
stresses.

9.  American casework did influence the use of
casework in India as the first professional
social workers who did casework in the Indian
setting were trained in the American schools
of social work. Casework was one of the
courses taught when the Sir Dorabji Tata
Graduate School of Social Work, currently
known as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences,
was started in Bombay in 1936, and it
became a method of practice in helping
people with their problems of social
functioning.

10.  Problems of social functioning cause distress to the
individuals who come voluntarily or involuntarily to a
social work agency for help.
1. Lack of material resources:
2. Misconceptions about situations and relationships and
lack of appropriate information:
3. Illness or health related handicaps:
4. Emotional distress resulting from stressful situations:
5. Personality features or deficiencies:

11. ◦ To make good rapport with the common people
◦ To find-out, understand & solve the internal
problems of an individual
◦ To strengthen ones ego power
◦ To prevent problem
◦ To develop internal resources

12. Relationship arise out of shared & emotionally charged
situation.
Relationship contains elements of acceptance, expectation,
support & stimulation.
Client & case worker are interdependent .
Case work relationship may have several therapeutic values .
Improvement of condition.
More adjustment within the society .
Development of personality.
Capacity building.
Relationship needs outside help.
Case worker too has relationship reactions and part of and
part of one’s professional skills in their management.

13.  Individualization.
 Purposeful expression of feelings
 Control of Emotion
 Self determination
 Acceptance
 Principle of non-judgmental attitude
 Principle of Confidentiality.
 Influence of psychoanalysis on casework.
 Introduction of casework as a method of social
work.
 Philosophical assumptions and casework values.

14. ◦ Individualization.
◦ Acceptance.
◦ Non-judgmental attitude.
◦ Participation.
◦ Relationship.
◦ Effective communication of feeling.
◦ Client self-determination.
◦ Confidentiality.

15.  Components of social casework:
 The person,
 The problem,
 The place
 The process.

16. Study.
Assessment.
Intervention.
Evaluation.
Termination.
Follow-up.

18.  Theories and approaches:
 Psycho-social approach.
 Behavioural modification.
 Problem-solving approach.
 Crisis Intervention.
 Family intervention.
 Transactional analysis.

19.  Psycho-social Theory
Psycho-social theory was propounded by Hamilton. She
published an article on “The Underlying Philosophy of
Social Case Work” in 1941 in which the word
‘diagnostic’ was used to express psycho-social
problems. In this approach, diagnosis and
treatment are directed toward person in
situation. The client is seen in the context of
his/her interactions and transactions with the
outer world. For proper diagnosis and treatment
client’s social context must be understood and
mobilized. Treatment must be differentiated
according to the need of the client. Three stages
are involved in psycho-social approach.

20.  Three stages are involved in psycho-social approach.
1. Psycho-social Study:
Social Caseworker starts his/her work with the knowledge
of the needs of the client. He/she on the basis of the
needs, assesses what kind of help his/her needs.
2. Diagnosis:
On the basis of the collected data and available material
social caseworker tries to assess the nature of client’s
trouble contributing factors and where changes can be
brought in his/her behaviour without much efforts.
3. Treatment
Social Caseworker gives much emphasis on indirect
treatment or environmental modification. He/she
intervenes actively in the environment and provides
necessary concrete help to the client.

21.  Behaviour Modification Theory
Behaviour modification theory is based upon the
principles of learning and conditioning propounded
by Pavlov and Thorndike. The researches of B.F. Skinner
helped to develop the behaviour modification approach
further. The behaviouristic theory viewed problem as
essentially the result of a failure to learn necessary
adaptive behaviors and competencies and/or the
learning of ineffective and maladaptive behaviors. It
may happen due to conflicting situations that require
the individual to make discriminations or decisions of
which he/she feels incapable. The maladjusted person
has learned faulty coping patterns, which are being
maintained by some kind of reinforcement, and he/ she
has failed to learn needed competencies for coping with
the problem of living.

22. Techniques of Behaviour Modification
1. Simple Extinction.
2. Systematic Desensitization.
3. Impulsive Therapy.
4. Assertive Therapy.
5. Aversion Therapy
6. Family Therapy.
7. Self-control and Self Management Therapy.

23.  Problem-solving approach.
This theory was propounded by Helen Harris Perlman in
the book “Social Case Work : A Problem Solving
Process”. This model stands firmly upon the
recognition that life is an outgoing problem
encountering – problem solving process.
Every person is involved every time in coping with
his/her problems. Sometimes he/she is capable of
coping and sometimes fails to resolve the crisis
situation. Through problem solving process individual
or family is helped to cope with or resolve some
difficulty that he/she is currently finding difficult to
solve. Thus the primary goal of problem solving
model is to help a person cope as effectively as
possible with such problems in carrying social tasks.

24. Therapy includes four stages:
 Presentation of Rationale
 Overview of Irrational Assumption
 Analysis of Client’s Problem in Rational Emotive
Terms.
 Teaching the Client to Modify Internal Statement

25.  Case work tools.
 Interview, home visit.
 Observation.
 Listening.
 Communication skills.
 Rapport building.

26.  Application of Method: Primary and secondary
settings.
◦ Application of methods in family.
◦ Women, and child welfare settings.
◦ Marriage counselling centres.
◦ Schools settings.
◦ Medical and psychiatric settings.
◦ Correctional institutions.
◦ Industrial settings.

27.  Records:
 Nature.
 Purpose.
 principles of recording.
 Techniques of casework.
 Supportive.
 Resource enhancement.
 Counselling.

28.  Relationship in Case Work:
 Client – Case Worker Relationship
 The term relationship in social case work was used for the
first time by Miss. Virginia Robinson in her book “A
changing psychology in Social Case Work” in 1939.
Relationship is the channel through which the mobilization
of the capacities of the client is made possible.
Relationship is the medium through which the client is
enabled to state his problem and through which attention
can be focused on reality problems, which may be as full
of internal conflict with emotional problems. Relationship
is the professional meeting of two persons for the purpose
of assisting one of them, the client, to make a better, a
more acceptable adjustment to a personal problem.
Professional relationship involves a mutual process of
shared responsibilities, recognition, of other‟s rights,
acceptance of difference to stimulate growth through
interaction by creating socialized attitudes and behaviour.

29. The caseworker has three major roles:
1. Clinical/behavioural change role;
In the clinical/behavioural change role, the
caseworker focuses his attention on those
aspects of the client's behaviour which cause
stress to himself or others. As an educator,
the caseworker may impart information,
transmit knowledge, give advice, correct
perception or explain situational factors
which are hidden from the client's view.

30. 2. Role of the consultant/educator;
The caseworker may be required to give
consultation to other social workers and
professionals from other disciplines and to
provide social work practice instruction to
students of social work.
3. The broker/ advocate role.
The advocate/broker role is of two types. The
first aspect, that is, the caseworker's
commitment to the individual client or family
as regards locating resources and services for

31. 1. M. Richmond, Social Diagnosis, Russell Sage Foundation,
New York, 1917.
2. The short history of American Casework presented here is
based on an article by H.H. Perlman. M.H. Perlman, "Social
Casework" in H.K. Lurie (ed), Encyclopedia of Social Work,
National Association of Social Workers, New York, 1965.
3. H. H. Perlman, Social Casework: A Problem-solving
Process, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1957.
4. J. Fischer, Effective Casework Practice, an eclectic
approach, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1978.
5. Francis Turner, "Some Considerations on the Place of
Theory" in Turner Francis (ed.), Social Work Treatment, The
Free Press, New York, 1974.
6. G.B. Banerjee, Papers on Social Work, An Indian
Perspective, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay,
1972.

32.  “A good head and good heart are always a
formidable combination. But when you add
to that a literate tongue or pen, then you
have something very special.”
Nelson Mandela