A Centennial of Mary Richmond’s Social Diagnosis: A Celebration and Contemporary Assessment of a Seminal Work

Abstract

Mary Ellen Richmond is often credited with developing social work as a profession in the United States. In this article, we focus on Richmond’s Social Diagnosis, revisiting this hallmark of social work practice a century after its publication and tracing its foundational ideas at the root of the conceptualization and practice of subsequent giants in social work. Our aim is to recenter and retrace these formative ideas so crucial to the origins of social work as a profession and its subsequent growth and development by examining Richmond’s understanding of social diagnosis, evidence-informed practice, and the helping relationship. A full century after the publication of Richmond’s far-reaching Social Diagnosis seems the most apposite time for such a review and revisit.