Towards Public Understanding of Case Work
- Author:
Viola Paradise. Russell Sage Foundation. 1948.
What is case work ? ” asked a jesting business executive of his social worker partner at a banquet, and even in the States he had to wait for an answer while the case worker experienced ” a drowning sensationFor there, as here, case workers are usually happier with the particular than with the general, and though ready to discuss an individual problem they become inarticulate when challenged in general terms.
Viola Paradise, therefore, concerned herself with the content of case work in addition to methods of publicizing it. For this purpose she formed an advisory committee of Cleveland’s social workers who ” in search of a common denominator ” experimented with the recording of conversations and with social workers’ statements about case work. These were then rewritten by journalists for popular consumption. The section which places side by side a professional statement about case work, and a writer’s version of it ” with some of the verbiage squeezed out is instructive not only to social workers concerned with reaching lay readers but also to those writing for their colleagues.
The rest of the book deals with the public attitude to case work, as recorded by questionnaires, and with methods of reaching the public and extending its interest in case work. It is reassuring to find that the public is far more friendly and receptive to case work and case workers than is suggested in some earlier chapters describing the defensive feelings of social workers.
One is left wondering whether ” the common denominator ” in case work does not remain a matter for professional clarification, and whether the public is not better served by the slow growth of understanding which comes from the experience of case work within the community, and from thoughtful discussion of individual cases, rather than by a campaign of popular interpretation however carefully devised. P.C.S.
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