Unfortunately, although the church had the best of intentions, their offerings were in the form of charity, which was seen to be a sign of piety, via various forms of direct relief, such as money, clothing, food and other material goods, instead of trying to attempt the root cause of poverty. This of course meant that although the poor received help for what they needed from day to day, they could never get out of the cycle of poverty, and it was not until 19th century that the history of social work as we know it began in earnest.

People Making Contributions

Elizabeth Gurney Fry

When looking at the history of social work, we will find that the first person to make significant contributions in attempting to change things was Elizabeth Gurney Fry (1780-1845), also known as `the angel of the prisons`, with the work she did in attempting to reform the British prison system. Betsy Gurney was a Quaker from a rather well-off family, and the Quakers had strong ideals about equality and peace. They were active in a range of philanthropic projects, including being amongst the early opponents of the slave trade. Betsy began her good work at an early age, when, at the age of 17 she set up a primary school for poor children in her own home. She took care of lonely and sick neighbors  and in 1813 started campaigning for prisoners rights, upon seeing the dire conditions in which women and children were imprisoned. Many of the reforms that Elizabeth Fry campaigned for were incorporated into British law in 1823 and she has been honored in various ways, including having a building named after her at the School of Social Work at Stanford University.

Thomas Chalmers

The next important figure in the history of social work was Thomas Chalmers, a Presbyterian preacher and an assistant to a professor at St Andrews, Scotland’s first university. He was ordained as minister the parish of Kilmany in 1803, and moved to Glasgow where he became minister of the Tron Church in 1815, where after he became minister of the church and parish of St John. Chalmers believed in helping the poor to help themselves and strongly dissuaded the poor in his parish to rely on public assistance. Chalmers found that this type of help dissuaded individuals from finding work and becoming self-dependent; he favored local solidarity and mutual support in the neighborhoods. He felt that with support and feeling that they were included in the community the poor could work and be modest while enlarging their own responsibility. He divided his parish into several districts and linked a deacon to each one of them whose duty it was to make frequent home visits, establish a friendly relationship with the poor and monitor their complete home situation, vis a viz material context, friendships, family ties, etc. as a basis for care and support. He also organized decent primary education for children, and weekend schools where they could receive additional secular and religious education. By doing this he helped the poor to help themselves, and his concepts were taken up by many, including Charles Loch who established the English Charity Organization Society, and Joseph Tuckermann who founded the Boston Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, 1835. His concepts are still very relevant to social work today.

Octavia Hill

The next individual who played an important part in the history of social work was Octavia Hill, a teacher and artist, who began her work amongst the poor of London in 1864, in what is now known as the borough of Marylebone, one of the most expensive places to live today. Hill’s focus was the home, as she firmly believed that no matter how small a home was, if it was well-maintained and light and airy and the person had neighbors that cared, it would make a huge difference in their lives. From housing she also branched out into creating gardens and playgrounds for the children, and even built a small clubhouse behind her own house in which she hosted weekend activities for women, children, and older people. Hill used money from the art critic John Ruskin to buy three houses in what is now central London, which she rented out, collecting the rent herself and discussing tenants’ problems with them. These housing projects became an attractive investment, and eventually other women were trained to undertake a similar role to Hill’s, enabling them to act as social workers. Octavia Hill is significant in the history of social work because she rejected charitable alms, electing instead to provide help without charity. This approach was designed to strengthen the self respect of tenants and to allow them to trust in their own capabilities, which is what we call empowerment and resilience today. Hill was a founding member of the Charity Organization Society set up in 1869. She also began to campaign to protect the natural environment in and around London in 1875, and helped found the National Trust in 1894, which still plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of parks, stately homes, and landscape in the UK.

Arnold Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee is another name that features in the history of social work for his proposed schemes for ‘university extension’, whereby students in deprived communities could apply and ‘extend’ their course material through volunteer work. This model received plenty of support in the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford, and it gained international recognition. Toynbee’s ideological ally, the Anglican priest Samuel Barnett, labelled it Practical Socialism, and after Toynbee’s early death in his twenties, he continued to promote the concept through the establishment of university settlements. These settlements provided these students with the opportunity to work to enhance the living conditions of the poor and also live among them for at least a year, with the aim of strengthening the links between scholars and the residents of urban slums, and achieving improved results in terms of mutual learning and social improvement. The philanthropist Charles Booth lived in Toynbee Hall whilst he worked on Life and Labor of the People in London, a study that mapped poverty in London at the end of the 19th century and influenced both social research and the fight against poverty for many decades thereafter.

Jane Addams

Jane Addams is an important name in the history of social work for her settlement work in North America in 1889. Another Quaker, Addams was inspired by her visit to Toynbee Hall to develop a similar initiative in Chicago. She started Hull House with her friend Ellen Starr, in Near West Side, a neighborhood with many European immigrants, which rapidly developed into an action center with education for adults, room for children, culture and a focus on social progress. Addams was also famous for engaging in political action aimed at establishing new laws to protect the poor. She assembled a group of strong, committed young women who became the female face of the democratization movement in the Progressive Era and professionalized the contribution of women in social work. Julia Lathrop and Florence Kelley, amongst others, reported on the effects of concentration of different ethnicities and their living conditions, about child labor and also about labor circumstances in the sweatshops. Their approach of ‘mapping’ contributed to the emergence of the famous Chicago school in urban sociology with key figures like George Robert E. Park and Herbert Mead. Addams succeeded in establishing a specific basis for American Social Work, which raised international interest, and Julia Lathrop later became the first director of the Children’s Federal Bureau (1912).

Joseph Rowntree

Rowntree is another name that should be remembered as part of the history of social work, even though the surname is more commonly known with regards to chocolate products such as Smarties or Kit Kat before their company was taken over by Nestle. Joseph Rowntree was also a Quaker, and was deeply concerned about the social problems of his time and became an active philanthropist committed to social reform. Rowntree’s main goal was to eradicate poverty and the other social evils, and he transferred his wealth in three trusts in 1904, which are still independently working towards reaching his goals. One of them, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, does many research projects which inspires social work in the UK and elsewhere. Seebohm Rowntree, Joseph’s son, initiated a house to house survey of York which he published in as Poverty, a study of town life in 1901, and various other studies.

Mary Ellen Richmond

Mary Ellen Richmond is another important name in the history of social work, and is known as “the founding mother of social casework.” She wrote a book called Social Diagnosis in 1917, which constructed the foundations for the scientific methodology development of professional social work. She dedicated her life to the modernizing and professionalizing of care for the poor from 1889 onwards, starting her career at the Charity Organisation Society in Baltimore, which was a US branch of the organisation Octavia Hill established in the UK. She was director of the charity department of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York, an influential fund supporting social science research, from 1909 until her death. Richmond systematically developed the content and methodology of diagnosis in the period around 1910, developing what she termed ‘social diagnosis,’ using her famous circle diagram which visualized the correspondence between client and environment. She identified six sources of power within the household, in the person of the client, in the neighborhood and wider social network, in civil agencies, and in private and public agencies that are available to clients and their social workers. Richmond gave social work clients a voice for the first time, opening up a new and fruitful area of social research which is still a cornerstone of social work today.

Alice Salomon

Throughout the history of social work there are other individuals such as Alice Salomon, a key figure in the development of social work in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century; Orwell, Griffin and others wrote various accounts of poverty and injustice; Robert Holbrook and Bill Wilson who started Alcoholics Anonymous; William Henry Beveridge, the architect of the welfare state; Carl Rogers, responsible for the earliest forms of humanistic psychology and person-centered therapy; Jane Jacobs, an urban visionary; Erving Goffman, known for his concept of total institutions; Sherry Arnstein, who published the article: A ladder of citizen participation for which she is still remembered and respected; Michael Lipsky for his concepts of street level bureaucracy and discretionary power; Paulo Freire for his approach known as conscientization which means ” the ways in which individuals and communities develop a critical understanding of their social reality through reflection and action.”

Ann Hartman

Others who form part of the history of social work are Joel Fischer, who argued that “The issue of effectiveness of practice always must be of paramount concern to the profession and cannot be brushed aside”; Ann Hartman who began her career in 1959 as a caseworker for the Summit County Child Welfare Board in Akron, Ohio and worked as a social work researcher and educator at the University of Michigan faculty after completing her PhD. She made two related contributions to social work that still influence today’s practice: the introduction of the ecomap or ecogram, and the genogram as simple drawing techniques that enable social workers to depict social and family relationships, and the second being the fact that the focus of clinical practice should not be solely on the client but should also include his or her social network.

Ida Maude Cannon

In the more modern history of social work, Dr. Richard Cabot, a senior physician at Mass General, hired the first social worker in 1905 to provide social work services in the outpatient clinics, and hired Ida Maude Cannon to jointly organize the nation’s first hospital-based social work program. Ms. Cannon was named Chief of the Mass General Social Service Department, the first organized social work department in a hospital, in 1914, and the social work program was further developed under her tenure.

Each one of the aforementioned individuals and many that came after them all contributed to what we know as social work today; each of them brought their own insight and research to the table, informed by their own experiences and building on what had come before. From churches, to philanthropists, to missionaries and volunteers, to government departments and state boards, all of them played a part in the history of social work, and many of them still do.

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If you are in hospital, you may have a physical therapist who will evaluate your bed mobility, and they will advise you on ways to get in and out of bed and how to also  perform certain exercises to keep your muscles strong and flexible while you are in the hospital.

Physical Therapy Has Always Used Natural Therapeutic Methods

Physical therapy has evolved from centuries of using natural therapeutic methods, and today the modern form of physical therapy began to really come into its own after the first World War when injured soldiers were in need of these type of services to relieve pain and to restore mobility to  injured limbs. The outbreak of poliomyelitis in the 1950s brought on many patients, both child and adult, in need of therapy. People affected by the disease who desperately in need of something that would help them to regain their  independence and their ability to earn a living by being mobile.

Today modern physical therapists are still using cold and heat, electricity as well as massage to restore strength. Massage is a physical therapy that relaxes and strengthens the soft tissues of the body, using a variety of hands-on-techniques. The soothing massage helps to relax the mind as well as the body, relaxing muscles, easing stiff joints and promoting circulation. Other benefits to this physical therapy is that it stimulated lymphatic drainage. Physical therapy history has always included massage, which is one of the oldest forms of remedial therapy and has been practiced for thousands of years. Ancient Chinese medical texts written more than 5 000 years ago make references to massage, and there is also evidence that it was practiced in India, Japan and Egypt more than 3 000 years ago.

Different Types Of Massage

More than 100 different types of massage are practiced today, and the most common forms are based on the principles of Swedish massage established by Peter Hendrik Ling. Some massage techniques are Effleurage, which is a stroking movement that soothes and relaxes, as well as Pettrisage which is a kneading movement that stimulates the tissues. There is also Friction, which is small circular movements aimed at releasing tension and blockages. Modern massage techniques include therapeutic massage, sports massage, infant massage, deep tissue massage, shiatsu, reflexology, aromatherapy and applied kinesiology. Massage is effective for treating disorders like sprains, strains, arthritis, anxiety, backache, swelling and insomnia and is also safe to use during pregnancy. Infant massage is a very specialized form of massage.

The physical therapist is well learned in the muscles and joints and how to exercise them and devices that apply pressure and on which resistance can be adjusted are used in the exercise program.

A Hands-On  Non-Surgical Treatment

Osteopathy is also a type of physical therapy and is a manipulative therapy that works on the body’s structure, skeleton, muscles, ligaments and connective tissue. Tension in muscles and misaligned bones place a strain on the body, and by adjusting the framework, this strain is relieved which allowing the free functioning of all the body systems. Physical injury, poor posture and emotional states such as anxiety can cause misalignment or muscular tension. Osteopathy used a variety of manipulative techniques to relax tight muscles and realign bones. Direct treatment techniques include soft-tissue massage, to release tension or fibrous knots cause by tension, articulatory movement techniques, where the joints are moved passively , often in a stretch; high -velocity thrust techniques which are sudden movements used to click joints back into position.

The physical therapist will take the patient’s history and conduct a physical examination which is made up of posture evaluation. The therapist will test movement and joints and will indicate the extent of the problem and what manipulative techniques are required.

Massage And Exercise Go Way Back

Looking at physical therapy history, in 1894, English nurses formed the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and soon after other countries began with their own training programs. In the United States way back in 1914, physical therapy was introduced at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC, and in fact some of the first physical therapists graduated. The history of physical therapy is interesting. Early Greek and Roman writings also make reference to the benefits of water, exercises and massage, and today’s common practices of using exercise, massage, water, heat and cold dates back to Greek culture and Hippocrates. In Europe, from the 1500s, the use of exercise to treat muscle and bone disorders and disabilities progressed so that by the 1800s, they were used for a variety of orthopedic diseases and injuries.

Physical Therapy Used To Treat Those Injured During Wars

American orthopedic surgeons trained young women graduates of physical-education schools to care for their patients, and reference is made to these young women treating patients in 1916 when an  epidemic of poliomyelitis struck. After World War II physical therapy became very popular and was used in the care of patients injured in the war. A special unit of the Army Medical Department also developed fifteen training programs to respond to the need for medical workers with expertise in rehabilitation.  In 1921, Mary McMillan founded the American Women’s Physical Therapeutic Association. The name later changed to the American Physical Therapy Association, also known as APTA. Mary was known as The Mother of Physical Therapy.  The year of 1921 will also be remembered in history because it was the year when  national accreditation of physiotherapy programs was introduced.   Physical therapy in the 1950s was highlighted during the Korean War as well as  continued polio epidemic. A vaccine for polio was developed to put an end to polio, but those who had contracted polio before the vaccine continued to need physical therapy treatment.

By 1959, there were state regulations for physical therapists  in many of the states  which actually led to the first national examination in 1954 and by 1967 most of the states required licensure laws. Physical therapists began to discover new options to improve patient function, and advances in technology began to ensure that the techniques and treatments began to change and improve, and Congress adopted the Education of All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, opening up new new avenues for physical therapists within the public school system. Changes in the USAs health care delivery system throughout the 1990s, influenced physical therapy and different Acts over the years have been implemented to challenge  physical therapists to provide quality services to patients.

Some Physical Therapy History From University Of Kansas

The physical therapy program at the University of Kansas Medical Center had their  first group of students admitted into their program in 1944 already and they received their first accreditation in 1945. In 1988 the University of Kansas was the first to offer an entry-level Master of Science in Physical Therapy but by 1990 the Bachelor of Science degree was phased out. In June 2004 the university launched their new three-year Doctor of Physical Therapy  program which ended the future for the Master of Science degree. After their most recent review by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education, they were awarded full accreditation for a period of 8 years, and today their exceptional faculty produces research papers each year.

Mobility Impairment Is Found in People Of All Ages

Mobility problems, contrary to what many people think, are not reserved for the elderly, but for treating young adults, children as well as tiny babies.  On top of that mobility impairment can also be as a result of someone being born with something like cerebral palsy, and in this instance, the movement of your arms and legs are limited.  Those people with diabetes could also become immobile, because of problems with blood circulation.

Physical therapy is offered by physical therapists who are licensed health care professionals. These medical professionals have different levels of training, and have master’s or doctorate degrees in  physical therapy.  The evaluate and create a physical therapy treatment plan; tailoring a plan to each  individual’s needs.

Physical therapy is enormously useful in treating many different medical disorders as well as sport injuries, cardiopulmonary diseases as well as neurological and muscular illnesses.

Some disorders that can cause problems with mobility are:

• hemiplegia – paralysis on one side of the body because of a stroke or brain injury

• cerebral palsy – a disorder which brings about  bad coordination and involuntary movements of the muscles

• multiple sclerosis – a disorder of the nervous system and deterioration of the nerve tissue

• quadriplegia – damage to the spinal cord in the cervical region causing impairment to the hands and arms

• paralysis – the loss of feeling in certain parts of the body

• paraplegic – paralysis of the lower extremities; loss of sensation and possibly loss of bowel and bladder control

Physical therapy can really be a relief-treatment for those who are finding it hard to move around and complete their everyday tasks, and this in itself brings about feelings of helplessness and depression. Sometimes even attempting to move around can bring about tremendous pain, whereas physical therapy can certainly improve and even restore your physical function and your fitness levels. Physical therapists have as their goal to make your life easier, and with effective physical therapy from reputable and accredited physical therapists you will soon be helping yourself in and out of bed and also be able to negotiate moving up a flight of stairs on your own.

Where Can I Fet Physical Therapy?

There are a number of places where you can get physical therapy, and some of these are nursing homes, clinics, hospitals, schools, at sports clubs and even in your own home. Remember to look out for certified physical therapists so that you get the best treatment you can, You will want a therapist who has experience with your particular health problem.  There are physical therapists who are  board-certified in specialized areas like sports, orthopedics,  geriatrics, and neurology. They also specialize in bones, ligaments, muscles, tendons and joints. 

How Do Physical Therapist Determine Your Problem?

Your physical therapist  will first examine you and determine your mobility and flexibility before they design a treatment plan for you. Once they have established this they set about creating a program that with restore your strength, flexibility, endurance and balance. The mission of the therapist is to also reduce your pain when you do start to move around. Physical therapy always includes exercise, and these exercises can include stretching, weight lifting and walking. Not only does the physical therapist give you exercises to do at the clinic or hospital, they also show you and teach you how to continue doing the exercises at home. Apart from the exercises, treatment will also include manual therapy like electrical stimulation, ultrasound and hot and cold treatments.

Conclusion

They beauty of physical therapy today is that by having physical therapy from highly qualified physical therapists, you can actually avoid having to have surgery. It has always played an important role in  health care, contributing to a worthwhile quality of life for patients by keeping them healthy and active, and that huge draw card, the avoidance of surgery. In the 21st century, physical therapy is still being widely used and is in great demand, only these days the treatment is far more effective. Physical therapists today undergo thorough and intensive training, and physical therapists are accomplished professional practitioners who add quality of life to their patients. When you are battling with mobility impairment and you are in pain, try putting yourself in the capable hands of  physical therapists and see how life takes on new meaning as you become more able to do all those day to day tasks on your own.

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