Social Work in World War I: A Method Lost

Abstract

In this article I chronicle the effect that psychiatry had on setting the practice methods for social work during World War I. Due to the war, social work followed a medical model that hindered its ability to develop its own full-fledged method of practice, and psychiatric social work came to dominate the profession. Yet, another method, one designed by the American Red Cross called Home Service, was also developed during the war-a method sadly lost.