A History of Helping

1. A History of Helping Chapter Two

2. Early History Summery • Early History • Mental illness was the consequence of evil spirits • The focus of treatment was to rid the body of the evil spirits • One such process was to drill a hole in the skull to allow the spirit to leave; this was called trephining • Other treatments included, various rites, beatings, starving, and bleeding

3. Early History Summery • Hippocrates (3rd century BC) • Used a scientific approach and took a much more realistic approach to mental illness • He believed mental illness had natural cause in the same manner as other illnesses • Brain disease, heredity, or head injury were examples of this • He distinguished between melancholia and epilepsy which are still used today

4. Early History Summery • The Catholic Church was the primary source of human services until the 1500s • St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi are considered to be among the first human service providers • Institutions were founded for the poor, orphans, the elderly, and those with disabilities • Asylums were established for the illness of deviant behavior

5. Early History Summery • Government became more prominent by the 1500s as the church declined in power • In England, people diagnosed with mental illness were to be protected • There were two categories of mental illness: • Natural fools or idiots: permanent conditions generally present a birth • Non compos mentis (lunatics): All other mental disorders

6. Early History Summery • By the end of the 15th century mental competence was established by an inquisition (unrelated to church inquisitions) • A government official and a jury of at least 12 men attempted to determine three points: • Was the person a idiot or lunatic? • When, how, and in what manner was the person lucid? • What land or property did the person own?

7. Early History Summery • By the end of the 15th hospitals would not only provide medical assistance to the ill but they also fed and housed tired travelers, orphans, the elderly, and the poor.

8. Early History Summery • During the 15th and 16th centuries, insane asylums were formed initially out of concern for the care and housing of the mentally ill, however, treatment and living conditions were very poor: • “Women were chained by the ankles to one long wall. Men were liable to be attached by the neck to a vertical bar. One man was kept that way, even in the 18th century, for 12 years” (London’s Bethlehem Hospital)

10. Early History Summery • The decline of feudalism and the coming of the industrial revolution created a new type of economy. The rural barter system the poor could use was no longer effective and their numbers grew • In England, the pressures of the poor in the city created the need for a large scale attack on poverty

11. Elizabethan Poor Laws (1601) • This large scale attack on poverty became the foundation for future human services • This legislation guided social welfare practices in and England and the United States for the next 350 years

12. Elizabethan Poor Laws (1601) • There were 3 features • Compulsory taxation • Classification system for dependents • Family vs. government responsibility

13. Elizabethan Poor Laws (1601) • Compulsory taxation • This was simply used to raise the funds necessary to help the needy • The system was very similar to the one used by the church in the middle ages

14. Elizabethan Poor Laws (1601) • Classification system for dependents • Dependents were classified according to their ability to work: • Children (who could work) were apprenticed or indentured • The able-bodied worked or they were punished • Those unable to work received home or institutional relief

15. Elizabethan Poor Laws (1601) • Family vs. government responsibility • Parents were legally responsible for their children and grandchildren • Children were legally responsible for their parents and grandparents • If the family could not provide assistance the government was responsible for doing so

16. Human Services in the Colonial America • Poor relief as public responsibility • Generally patterned after Elizabethan Poor Laws • Legal residence • Services were provided at the local level • Family responsibilities • Public aid was denied those who had family • Apprenticed children • Children of paupers

17. 19th Century • Social philosophies • Probation mental illness • Child welfare • Reform movements

18. *a. individualism b. Laissez-faire c. Social Darwinism d. Social Philosophies • Individualism • Hard work was the road to success • Laissez-faire • Limited government and limited human service • Social Darwinism • Natural selection dictated that the poor were, by nature, unfit for survival

19. Probation • Earliest forms of probation began appearing in the 19th century • Judge Peter O. Thatcher (Boston) • John Augustus • Salvation Army

20. Mental Illness • Dr. Benjamin Rush (1700s) • The founder of American psychiatry fought to deal with mental illness scientifically • Dorothea Dix (1800s) • Called attention to harsh treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill

21. Child Welfare • House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents in New York City • Provision of pension for mothers and/or widows • Juvenile courts and probation system

22. Reform Movements • Organized Charity Movement • Forerunner of the United Way • Settlement House Movement • Social engineering • Hull House (Jane Addams 1889) • Beginning of social work profession • United Way

23. Mental Health Movement • Clifford Beers • A victim of mental illness; founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiend • The beginning of organized mental health movement • Clinical psychology profession

24. Social Security Act (1935) • Protection from economic stability • Birth of American welfare state • Expansion of welfare activities • Assistance • Social insurance • Public assistance • Health and welfare services

25. Public Assistance Programs • APTD • AFDC • OAA

26. 20th Century: Mental Health • NIMH • Mental health Study Act • Community Mental Health Centers Act

27. Johnson Administration • War on poverty • “Great Society” • Medicare • Medicaid

28. Human Service Movement • New type of worker • Deinstitutionalization • Professional organizations

29. Social Welfare Revisions • New Federalism • Reduction of government involvement • Department of Health and Human Services • Proposition 13

30. Welfare Reform • PRWORA- 1996 • TANF • Emergency funds—2009-2010 • Evaluation

31. 21st Century Changes • Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 • Centers for Faith-based and Community Initiatives

32. Unresolved Issues • Social Security funding • Protection of civil liberties • Healthcare • War in Afghanistan