From Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults
Organized effort to help individuals and families to adjust themselves to the community, as well as to adapt the community to the needs of such persons and families. Modern social work employs three methods of assistance: case work, group work, and community organization.
An institution in which certain kinds of illness are investigated and treated. The first documented hospital was Chinese, in 491. In the European Middle Ages the well-to-do were all treated at home, while the sick poor were cared for in a hospital attached to the local poor house.