Situational Approaches to Direct Practice: Origin, Decline, And Re-Emergence.

Beginning in the 1890s, major social and economic changes steadily began to affect every aspect of life in the United States. Social workers, social reformers, community activists, and social planners were caught up in waves of speculation and activity as they sought to determine the best ways to develop, restructure, and guide social programs and even society itself (Trattner, 1999). One offshoot of this tremendous burst of concern and energy was the attempt on the part of a small number of social workers and social thinkers to develop both a "scientific" as well as a "social" approach to social work direct practice. Foremost in this effort were Jane Addams, Mary Richmond, Ada Sheffield, Eduard Lindeman, and Mary Parker Follett. Either working together or under each other's influence, they pioneered efforts to forge a new "situational" approach to social work practice, a method that used evidence derived from practice experience combined with the latest findings of the social sciences to craft interventions designed to improve the lives of those needing assistance. THE GROWTH OF SITUATIONAL THINKING