Occupational Social Work

The aim of Social Work is to alleviate the conditions of people suffering from social deprivation with in the community. It promotes social change and engages in problem solving to enable service users reach their full potential (Graham, 2007). The British history of social work in intellectual disability can be traced back to the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act (Gilbert, 1985, p.59) where the justification of institutional care and community control is outlined in section 17 of the Act. Occupational social work developed after the formation of the Charity Organisation Society (CSO) in 1869. The concept of social work developed by the CSO was a direct extension of a social theory concerning the causes of social unrest and disadvantage. The CSO is credited with the development of ‘casework’, a pillar of modern social work practice (Rooff 1969). This essay will look at the historical and

21). The Poor Law (1984) saw the birth of institutional asylums and care for people with intellectual disabilities within 'the first welfare state' system. People with intellectual disabilities were viewed as requiring physical care and control, either within institutions or cautiously policed with in their families on the foundation of a pathology that is unchanging and unchangeable (Burt, 1952; Lyons and Heaton-Ward, 1955). Although this was typically a caring approach, it was paternalistic and lacking in any developmental process, with those cared for conceptualized as 'objects of pity' (see Wolfensberger, 1992). Social Work has constantly involved both care and control through its implementation of social obligations, rules, and regulations (Garland,