Harriett M. Bartlett

Ida M. Cannon: Pioneer in Medical Social Work

Ida Cannon was an early social work leader who made a major contribution to the building of the profession—its organization, educational base, and practice. A member of the small group of pioneer workers whom Dr. Richard Cabot introduced into the medical setting during the opening years of this century, she directed the growth of social work at the Massachusetts General Hospital for nearly four decades. Among the factors in her success were her great capacity for warm human relationships, her wisdom in learning from experience and demonstrating principles in practice, and her wide travels in this country and abroad communicating the ideas to others. She always kept the individual patients needs in the central focus, continually interpreted the social aspects of illness as a basic concept, and emphasized the teamwork of the professions-medicine, nursing, social work, and others. Thus she built an enduring model which spread throughout this country and beyond.