VPRS 19297 Almoner [Social Work] Committee, Minutes

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This series comprises meeting minutes of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s (VA 1048) Almoner Committee dating from when the hospital assumed financial responsibility.

Social work at the hospital has its origins in the Social Service Bureau, formed by Constance Hughes, in the early 1920s, which later evolved into the Social Service Auxiliary, which was formally established in May 1924. The women volunteers, working in conjunction with the Red Cross Society, helped patients with free ambulance transport, distributed clothing, provided surgical appliances, and in some cases found work for discharged patients and temporary homes for children of patients. In 1928, the Auxiliary changed its name to Hospital Almoner Department (also known as the Almoner Auxiliary) and asked that the hospital’s Committee of Management request a loan of a professionally trained almoner [social worker]. The Committee agreed to appoint a trained English almoner from St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, Agnes MacIntyre, for a year, with the money for her passage and salary funded by the Auxiliary. In June 1929, MacIntyre arrived and became the first hospital almoner in Australia. She was asked to direct a training school at the Melbourne Hospital as well as to carry out social work herself. A Victorian Institute of Almoners was soon established to encourage other institutions to appoint social workers. On 25 August 1931, the Committee of Management assumed financial responsibility for the Almoner Department and in 1962, the hospital changed the title of Almoner to Medical Social Worker. The department was disbanded in 1977 as social work became ingrained in hospital activities. The minutes of the department detail its activities and operation as well as early examples of the social work in the hospital.

For meeting minutes of the committee prior to it being managed by the hospital, see VPRS 19293 Records of the Royal Melbourne Hospital Auxiliaries.

Prior to transfer to Public Record Office Victoria, the records in this series were maintained as part of the Royal Melbourne Hospital Archives.