Lutheran Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing - Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Lift Up Your Eyes -social work is the art of adjusting personal relationshipsg the art of helping people out of trouble and teaching them to help themselves. The term Social Work has come into use during the twentieth century, though the work is as old as human society. For centuries the care of the needy was exclusively the function of the church and was performed for the most part by persons who had other duties. Very little discrimination was used as to how to give relief and to whom to give relief, and so the poor grew in number, rather than decreasing in number. Then with the rise of public relief, charity got into politics and here too it became the work of those who had so many duties to perform and who lacked specific training. Today we look upon social work as a profession. It is going through a period of development similar to that which has been experienced by other professions. A complete revolution has taken place in the teaching of medical students. In the early days we found that a doctor would have an apprentice. He would learn by assisting-and soon become a doctor. Then we find that a few private medical schools were opened. Later Universities established medical schools. Great care was taken in planning for a better curricula-and today we find that a High School, some College and Premedic course are necessary before a student is admitted to the Medical school. He must then study and do his laboratory work for a period of four years. In addition to this there is the supervised practice-interneship for a period of one year. Developments in engineering show that the recent apprentice method has given way to a University training. The lawyer no longer becomes such by ureadingn law. He must have at least three years of college work with history, political science and economics before he is admitted to professional work. Many a man has left the furrow for the ministry with no other pref paration than the call to preach-but today the professional training of a pastor includes a full college course followed by two or three years in a theological seminary. So also in the social work. The fact that a man or women desires to help the poor and needy is not enough. The worker must be trained to help the needy and teach them to help themselves. In order to do this he must be speciically trained along the lines which he or she wishes to work. Social work might be stated as being the sum of all efforts made by society to take up its own slack, to provide for individuals when its established institutions fail themg to supplement those estabf lished institutions and modify them at those points at which they have Page Twenty-four

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Lift Up Your Eyes nu---Q 'fi ., ',,. lJ X Mabel L. Thorstensen Field Secretary A Are Tranined Christian Workers Needed Today? 'lift up your eyesf' The tcrm Social Service Work, is gaining such prominent recognif tion today, that it may be well for us to consider the meaning of the same and its adaptability to our needs. By Social Work is meant caring for needy children in institutions or placing them in foster homesg investigating cases of neglect, abuse or crueltyg supervising delinquents who are placed on pnrolcg caring for and helping unmarried mothersg untzingling family dillicultiesg providing Hnzmciul ussistunccg securing and explaining necessary medical careg finding work for men and womeng inspecting houses and factoriesg direct' ing the use of leisure time and zictivitiesg teaching and advising immif grantsg promoting public interest in health, thrift and law enforcement -these are only a few of the tasks of the social worker. In other words Page Twentyfthrce

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Lift Up 'Your Eyes proved to be badly adapted to social needs. Social work does not in' clude what the individual does for his own benefit or that of his family. We might divide for our convenience Social Work as follows: 1-Case work. 2-Organization and administration of institutions. 3-Teaching and organizing small groups for educational, recrea- tional and social purposes. 4-Education of public. 5-Coordination and organization of the resources of the community. From these rather large divisions we can readily see that in order to do effective work, in order not to have too much reduplication, skilled workers are necessary and all workers must be skilled. A scientific train' ing is necessary-but in addition to this a social worker, in order to do effective work-must have a Christian Foundation. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that houseg and it fell notg for it was founded upon a rock. fMath. 7:25.j Religion is dynamic! Religion shows itself differently to different people. In some it comes suddenly as in con' versiong in others there is a growth of a slowly developing convictiong but to all it comes through faith. Telling people to go to church does not help. When a man is hungry, or his family is in dire need-he wants and needs temporal things-these must be tended to first-then spiritual aid may be given. The social worker gets them in touch with those who understand things that they understand. No social worker can do real effective, lasting work unless he helps the man, woman or child spiritually as well as physically. Our state institutions do much to provide for the latter- but the former is not given much consideration. , We can reach the soul of no one unless we know the individual as he really is. Bitterness is caused by failing to understand and failing to meet conditions. The Heart must win the heart. Jesus has said For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. fjolrm 13:15'j and herein he has given us a great opportunity. If we are to be like unto God and follow His example- we must study Him. jesus was ever active and so He desires us to be active for Him. There is a real need in the Church for a larger number of consecrated deaconesses, but along side of the deaconess there is also a real need for the trained Christian worker in our Church. There are young women Page Twenty-five