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15 Int'l Soc. Work 1 (1972)

handle is hein.journals/intsocwk15 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL IN this issue we are once more concerned with the inappropriateness of Western models of social work for countries which differ strongly from the West both in value- systems and in socio-economic development. Professor Nagpaul argues that such models are now considered inadequate by many critics in their country of origin, and are al- most totally irrelevant to the problems and needs of India. At the same time, for histori- cal reasons, the training of social workers in India shows little sign of throwing off this irrelevant model, and its products are there- fore virtually useless in the Indian scene. This is an extreme position, and some readers may feel the case is over-stated. For instance, his standards for courses in Community Organisa- tion are clearly more exacting than those of another contributor, Stuart Rees, who finds it worthwhile to send Scottish students to the U.S.A. to study this method of social work intervention. Professor Nagpaul also maintains that the special branches of social work for which Indian social work graduates, like their American counterparts, prepare, are totally irrelevant to the needs of Indian life. He sug- gests that psychiatric social work will remain an extravagance until a much higher level of custodial care has been achieved. But the value of custodial care is increasingly open to question; in fact programmes of mere custodial care have been shown to be highly dangerous in terms of prolonging and exacer- bating conditions which are curable, or cap- able of much relief, by suitable attention to environmental factors, and the social situa- tion.. The question is not whether psychiatric social work is an important component of treatment according to Western standards but whether it is not an important component of rehabilitation as an alternative to long-term custodial care. Similarly, Professor Nagpaul argues that medical social work is completely irrelevant in view of the disparity between morbidity and medical resources in India. By an inter- esting coincidence we published last year (Vol. XIV No. 3) an article by two Indian authors which illustrates the value of social work in preventing the waste of human poten- tial and scarce medical resources which too often occurs when medical treatment alone is offered to People who fail to cooperate on account of unmet social and emotional needs. Further discussion of these issues is clearly required. In a paper of rare balance and wisdom, Dr. van de Graaf also criticizes the tradi- tional focus of social work on the problems of the individual and his adjustment to society. He argues on the .one hand that our concern for individuals cannot be effective unless we take responsibility for constructive criticism of the wider social system, but on the other that a focus on ever larger social systems must not be allowed to diminish our interest in the individual, who still needs the opportunity for existential encounter with the social worker. Mrs. Arad picks up the theme of the social worker's responsibility for influencing social policy - and its difficulty. She is specially concerned about the relative ineffectiveness

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