Helen Rehr
Helen Rehr | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 16, 1919 New York City |
| Died | February 13, 2013 (aged 93) New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | professor of social work |
| Years active | 1954-2013 |
| Known for | Director of the Department of Social Work at Mount Sinai Hospital |
Helen Rehr (December 16, 1919 – February 13, 2013) was an American medical social worker, director of the Department of Social Work at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
Early life[edit]
Helen Rehr was born in New York, the daughter of Philip Rehr and Rose Rehr. Both of her parents were born in Poland. She attended Hunter College for undergraduate studies,[1] before earning a master's degree from Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW) in 1945; she completed a doctorate there in 1970.[2]
Career[edit]
Rehr joined the social work department of Mount Sinai Hospital in 1954, and retired as the department's director in 1986.[3] She helped establish international exchanges for social work scholarship, and helped create the International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health.[1] She was on faculty at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Medical Center, where she was director of the Academic Division of Social Work.[2] Rehr had more than a hundred scholarly publications.[4] She was a member of the editorial board for the journal Social Work in Health Care from its founding in 1975, and was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1978-1979), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1986).[3]
Academic and professional honors accorded to Rehr included the CUSSW Distinguished Service Alumni Medal in 2004; the "Social Work Pioneer" designation by the National Association of Social Workers Foundation;[2] the Ida M. Cannon Award in 1975,[5] induction into the Hunter College Hall of Fame, and into the Columbia University School of Social Work Hall of Fame. She was a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.[1]
Personal life and legacy[edit]
Rehr died in 2013, aged 93 years, at her home in New York City.[6] She established both the Helen Rehr Scholarship Fund and the Helen Rehr and Ruth Fizdale Professorship Fund in Health and Mental Health, both at CUSSW.[2] The Helen Rehr Center for Social Work Practice was founded in 2010.[7]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Helen Rehr, MSW, PhD (1919-2013)" Hunter College.
- ^ a b c d "CUSSW Mourns the Loss of Social Work Legend Helen Rehr (SW'45, DSW'70)" Columbia University School of Social Work (February 16, 2013).
- ^ a b Gary Rosenberg, "A Tribute to Dr. Helen Rehr" Social Work in Health Care 52(2013): 523-524.
- ^ "Helen Rehr" Jewish Women's Archive.
- ^ SSWLHC, "Ida M. Cannon Award".
- ^ Wendy Bunston, "Inspirational advocate for social work's place in hospital care" Sydney Morning Herald (March 6, 2013).
- ^ Helen Rehr Center for Social Work Practice, About Us, website.
External links[edit]
- Finding aid to Helen Rehr papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
- Helen Rehr, Gary Rosenberg, and Doris Siegel, The Changing Context of Social-health Care: Its Implications for Providers and Consumers (Psychology Press 1991). ISBN 9781560241430
- Helen Rehr and Gary Rosenberg, The Social Work-Medicine Relationship: 100 Years at Mount Sinai (Routledge 2012). ISBN 9781135801830
- Gary Rosenberg and Helen Rehr, Advancing Social Work Practice in the Health Care Field: Emerging Issues and New Perspectives (Routledge 2012). ISBN 9781136565717
- M. Joanna Mellor and Helen Rehr, Baby Boomers: Can My Eighties Be Like My Fifties? (Springer Publishing 2005). ISBN 9780826197566