Primary and Secondary

Methods in Social Work

 INTRODUCTION
Social work:

• Practice-based profession
• Academic discipline
• Promotes social change and development
• Principles of social justice, human rights, collective
responsibility, and respect for diversities  social
work.
• Social work engages people and structures to
address life challenges and enhance wellbeing.”
METHODS OF SOCIAL
WORK
METHOD MEANS…..?
 A particular procedure for accomplishing or
approaching something, especially a systematic or
established one.
 A particular way of doing something
 A way, technique, or process of or for doing something.
 A body of skills or techniques.
 A discipline that deals with the principles and techniques
of scientific inquiry.
 Approach, fashion, form, how, manner, methodology,
recipe, strategy, style, system, tack, tactics, technique, way.
Being a scientific profession social work has its own
methodology. Traditionally the methods of social work are
divided as primary and secondary.

SOCIAL WORK METHODS

PRIMARY METHODS SECONDARY METHODS

Social Case Work Social Action

Social Group Work Social Welfare Administration

Community Organization Social Work Research

1.SOCIAL CASE
WORK
 Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-1928) the founding mother of
Social Case Work.
While social case work was a primary method of
intervention, it was not until Mary Richmond published Social
Diagnosis in 1917 that a formal definition for social case work
began to formulate.

WHAT IS SOCIAL CASEWORK?

Mary Ellen Richmond: ‘Social case work consists of those

processes which develop personality through adjustments
consciously effected, individual by individual, between men
and their social environment’.

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL CASEWORK

1. The person
2. The problem
3. The place
4. The process
 PHASES OF SOCIAL CASE WORK PROGRESS
According Mary Richmond (1917) there are
three phases of social case work practice:
1. social investigation or psycho-social study,
2. diagnosis and
3. treatment or management.
In contemporary social case work practice these
three phases have been divided into five divisions
namely-
4. Social investigation or Study,
5. Assessment,
6. Intervention,
7. Termination and
8. Evaluation.
AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/ APPLICATIONS OF
SOCIAL CASE WORK

1. Medical Setting
2. Family Setting
3. Correctional Setting
4. Educational Setting
5. Child Welfare Setting
6. Corporate Setting
2.SOCIAL GROUP WORK
 Social group work was introduced to the social work
profession when it made its debut at the National
Conference for Social Work in 1935. At this
conference, Newsletter (1935) introduced the concept
of social group work to the social work profession.

WHAT IS SOCIAL GROUP WORK?

 Group work is a method of working with people in groups. A

group can be made up of two or more people. Group work is
an approach aimed at personal growth, enhancement of
social functioning, and for the achievement of socially
desirable goals.
 PHASES OF SOCIAL GROUP
WORK
1. Forming the Group-Beginning
2. Exploration- Initial Session
3. Performing- Action Phase
4. Assessment- Evaluation
5. Termination- Separation
 AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/
APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL GROUP
WORK
1. Group Work in Community Settings

2. Group Work in Institutional Settings

3. Group Work in Educational Settings

3. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
Community organization viewed from a humanitarian
approach is meant to solve the problems of the community is as
old as society itself. But viewed as one of the methods of social
work profession it is of very recent origin.
WHAT IS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION?
 Murray G. Ross in 1955 Community organization covers a
series of activities at the community level aimed at bringing
about desired improvement in the social well being of
individuals, groups and neighborhoods.
 In a more contemporary context, Murphy and Cunningham
(2003) have defined community organizing as “the
systematic process for mobilizing and advocating by using
communal power”.
PROCESS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
1)Role Searching
2)Enlisting People’s Participation
3)Developing a Community Profile
4)Needs Assessment
5)Ordering/Prioritizing Needs
6)Problem Analysis and Redefinition
7)Formulation of Achievable Objectives
8)Development of Community Confidence and Willpower
9)Work Out the Alternatives
10)Selection of an Appropriate Alternative
11)Work Out a Plan of Action
12)Mobilisation of Resources
13)Implementation of Action
14)Evaluation of Action
15)Modification
16)Development of Cooperative and Collaborative Attitudes.
AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/ APPLICATIONS OF
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
• Urban/ Rural/ Tribal Community
Development.
• Working With the Community Power
Structure.
• Government/Non Government/ Corporate
Sectors.
• Models- Locality Development, Social
Planning/Policy, Social
Action,Neighbourhood Development
Model,System Change Model,Structural
Change Model.
 4. SOCIAL ACTION
WHAT IS SOCIAL ACTION?
 Mary Richmond, for the first time, in 1922, made use of the
term social action in social work. She has defined social action
as “mass betterment through propaganda and social
legislation”.

 Nanawati (1965) considered social action as “a process of bringing

about the desired changes by deliberate group and community
efforts. Social action does not end with the enactment and signing
of social legislation, but that the execution of the policies was the
real test of success or failure of social action”.

 Social action should not be seen only as a method but as an

overriding philosophy behind socialwork education in Pakistan.
 PROCESS OF SOCIAL
ACTION
1. The Initiating set
2. The Legitimizers
3. The Diffusion set
4. Defining the need
5. Commitment to action
6. Goals
7. Means
8. Plan for action
9. Mobilizing and organizing resources
10. Launching the program
11. Carrying out the program
12. Final evaluation
 AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/
APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL
ACTION
1)Prevention of needs.
2) Solution of mass problems.
3) Improvement in mass conditions.
4) Influencing institutions, policies and practices.
5) Introduction of new mechanisms or programmes.
6) Redistribution of power and resources.
7) Decision-making.
8) Effect on thought and action structure.
9) Improvement in health, education and welfare.
 5. SOCIAL WELFARE
ADMINISTRATION
Social welfare administration is a process by which we apply
professional competence to achieve certain goals. It is called a
process of transforming social policy into social action. It involves
the administration of government and Non-government
agencies.
WHAT IS SOCIAL WELFARE ADMINISTRATION?
 Herleigh Tracker (1971) interprets social welfare administration
as a “process of working with people in ways that release and
relate their energies so that they use available resources to
accomplish the purpose of providing needed community
services and programmes.”
 John C Kidneigh 1950 : social work administration is “the
process of transforming social policy into social services---a
two-way process:
 PROCESS/FUNCTIONS/ SCOPE OF
SW ADMINISTRATION
1. P- Planning
2. O- Organizing
3. S- Staffing
4. D- Directing
5. Co- Coordinating
6. R- Reporting
7. B- Budgetting
8. E- Evalution
9. F- Feedback
6. SOCIAL WORK
RESEARCH
Social Work Research is the application of research methods to the
production of knowledge that Social Workers need to solve problems
they confront in the practice of Social Work.

WHAT IS SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH?

 G R Madan in Indian Social Problems Vol-2 (Page No-18): Social Work

Research is the systematic critical investigation of questions in the social
welfare field with the purpose of yielding answers to problems of social
work and of extended.

 In brief “it helps Social Workers to find ways and means of enhancing
social functioning at the individual, group and social levels.
 THE RESEARCH PROCESS
 Stage I : Selection and Formulation of Problem
 Stage II : Formulation of Hypothesis
 Stage III : Formulation of Research Design
 Stage IV : Collection of Data
 Stage V : Analysis and Interpretation of Data
 Stage VI : Generalizations.
 AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/
APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL
WORK RESEARCH
1. Social Work Theory
2. Social Work Practicum
3. Social Work Profession
A well-established and
widely used model for
thinking about the ways
that needs are identified
is Bradshaw’s (1972)
‘taxonomy of social need’. Defining
Bradshaw distinguishes Social
between four ways of Needs
identifying need:
• Felt need;
• Expressed need;
• Comparative need;
• Normative need.
Levels of
need
The concept of different
levels of need has often
been illustrated by the
image of a triangle or
pyramid.
 CONCLUSION
The discipline of social work has a long history
of evolution from charity-based tradition to the
autonomous profession of today. The concern for
professionalizing and acadamizing social work across
the globe became a significant issue in the beginning
of the twentieth century in the west including Europe
and the US. From the west, social work as a
professional discipline has spread all over the world.
 REFERENCES
1. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010). Origin and Development of Social Work. Indira
Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.

2. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010).Case Work and Counselling: Working with

Individuals. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.

3. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010).Social Group Work: Working with Groups.

Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.

4. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010). Community Organization Management

for Community Development. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New
Delhi.

5. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010).Social Work Research. Indira Gandhi

National Open University, New Delhi.