Introduction to Human Services

Things to remember

1.Human services has developed in response to the need of individuals or groups for assistance to live better lives. 2.Because human services recognizes client needs as problems in living, it does not focus on the past but seeks to improve the present and change the future. 3.Human services has emerged as a response to the increase in human problems in our modern world. 4.Human services provides three distinct functions: social care, social control, and rehabilitation. 5.Human services uses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding clients, helpers, and the context, including an understanding of both the multicultural and social justice perspectives. 6.Human services are services that help people with their problems.7 .The relationship between client and helper is the foundation for human service delivery. 8.Certain management principles influence delivery and reflect the value of focusing on the client. 9.The interaction between the client and the human service system also defines human services. 10.In the successful delivery of services, the client develops new insights, skills, and competencies. 11.Human service work reflects a generalist approach to service delivery.

Problems in living

Focus on improving the present and changing the future. Doing so involves directing attention to the client, the environment, and the interaction between the two. The experience of problems in living relates to (a) the interaction of individual problems or issues, (b) issues and challenges linked to life span development, (c) problems situated in a challenging environment, and (d) difficulties that arise from social justice issues

learning objectives

LO1-1 Identify the themes and purposes of human services. LO1-2 Define problems in living, and illustrate how individuals experience these problems. LO1-3 Relate the growing number of problems in the modern world to the needs of clients, families, and communities. LO1-4 Identify the aspects of self-sufficiency and the barriers to achieving it. LO1-5 Compare the functions of social care, social control, and rehabilitation.The Human Service Profession LO1-6 Apply the contributions of sociology, psychology, and anthropology to the human service profession. LO1-7 Identify four tasks that human service professionals perform during the helping process. LO1-8 List the abilities of human service professionals that enhance the helping relationship. LO1-9 Define the term social justice, and explain why it is an important concept for human service professionals and their clients. LO1-10 Name the three characteristics of human service teams. LO1-11 Summarize the contributions of case management to human service delivery. LO1-12 List the characteristics of the generalist approach to human services

Networking

Networking is one way that service providers work together to serve clients. Service delivery philosophy has changed; rather than agency-focused service delivery, there is increased communication, cooperation, and collaboration among helpers and agencies that promote more effective service delivery.

Themes and Purposes (Functions of Human Service)

Problems in living The Growing Number of Problems in the Modern World Self- Sufficiency Social Care, Social Control & Rehabilitation

Psychology

Study of the mind and behavior. Uses numerous theories to examine how people think, feel, and behave and explore why they think, feel, and behave in the ways in which they do. These theories analyze behavior and mental processes from the physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and psychodynamic perspectives. These theories are used to develop a better understanding of people.

Perspectives of Human Services

Themes and Purposes Interdisciplinary Nature Helping Relationship Social Justice Management Principles The Generalist

Profession

Three principles of management related to the delivery of services characterize the profession today: networking to develop a human service umbrella, forming teams and partnerships to provide service, and using case management to facilitate client growth. These management strategies help professionals provide more effective and efficient assistance to clients as well as enhance their own work environment.

Practical ways the professional can incorporate a social justice perspective to the human service work is to ask the following questions

Who makes decision and who is left out?• Who benefits? Who suffers?• Why is a given practice fair or unfair?• What is required to create change?• What alternatives can we imagine?

Partnership

a way that organizations in the human service delivery system can work together to serve their clients more completely. These partnerships are formed when two or more human service organizations agree to work together toward common goals.The concept of partnership has emerged as a way for human service organizations to relate to each other for several reasons. Many of them are financial. As the cost of service provision increases and available financial resources decrease, many organizations are finding that they can provide services more cost-effectively when they work with other agencies

Teaming

approach yields more efficient and more effective service. Many professionals, functioning as a group, are working together to provide creative, coordinated services. Such teams are able to evaluate their own performance and make changes to improve their service delivery. The bottom line is improving the delivery of services to clients

Social Care

assisting clients in meeting their social needs, with the focus on those who cannot care for themselves. The elderly, children, people with mental disabilities or mental illness, and victims of crime, disasters, or crises are populations who might need social care

Social Control

differs from social care in two fundamental ways: who receives the services and under what conditions they receive them. Social care is given to those who cannot provide for themselves (either temporarily or in the long term). In contrast, most recipients of social control are able to care for themselves but either have failed to do so or have done so in a manner that violates society's norms for appropriate behavior. Often society, rather than the individual, determines who receives services that represent social control. The purpose of such services is to restrict or monitor clients' independence for a time because the clients have violated laws of the community. Children, youth, and adults in the criminal justice system are examples of clients of social control

Self-Suffiency

economic self-sufficiency such as attaining employment and a stable income, but today the mean-ing of client self-sufficiency is broader. It relates to client strengths and a client's belief in his or her abilities to establish goals, develop plans, ask for help, and address barriers (Snyder, 2002). Hence, self-sufficiency includes a psychological state as well as a financial state.

Human Services

encompasses the variety of helping services that address the range of problems that people experience

generalist approach

endeavor that requires knowledge of individuals, an understanding of society and its relationship to individual and family life, and a view of the culture in which people live. Helpers often work with clients who are very different from themselves. By integrating disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and anthropology, human service professionals can better understand the nature of their clients and their environments. This allows them to understand and relate to their clients more effectively.Integrated into all three disciplines, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, is a multicultural and a social justice perspective that provides the foundation for understanding and helping the client. Assuming that all interactions are multicultural.

Sociology

examines the ways in which human societies influence the people who live in these societies. Assesses the individual and the broader culture and tries to account for and understand the differences within human culture. Helps human service professionals understand elements of life that affect living, such as family structure, family roles, gender, race, and poverty.

evidence-based practice

represents an approach to human service delivery that is based upon knowledge about a specific intervention's effectiveness. Today, evidence-based practice influences the development of interventions in human services

Case management

service delivery strategy that is often necessary when several agencies or professionals are involved in providing services. When so many people are engaged in service delivery with the same client, the services may become fragmented, uncoordinated, or both, leaving the client dissatisfied and often with unresolved problems. Assuming case management responsibilities is one way to deliver multiple services in a more effective and efficient manner

Anthropology

studies the cultural, physical, and social development of humans and the variation in their customs and beliefs. A critical component of the study of anthropology is fieldwork. Anthropologists often live at the site they are studying as they try to learn about human groups and the role of culture in the lives of the individuals within these groups

Social Justice

supporting and encouraging fair treatment for all individuals in a society and opposing and confronting injustice The belief in promoting social justice is based upon the assumptions that "all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treat-ment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources" (Toowoomba Catholic Education, 2006, as cited in Robinson, 2016).

ideas that provide the foundation for human service professional work

the interdisciplinary nature of human services, the relationship between the client and helper, the client and the client's environment, the importance of social justice, management principles in human service delivery, evidence-based practice, and the generalist approach to human services

Rehabilitation

the task of returning an individual to a prior level of function-ing. What creates the need for rehabilitation? An individual who was once able to live independently becomes unable to function socially, physically, or psychologically. The inability to function can be caused by a crisis, a reversal of economic or social circumstances, an accident, or other circumstances. Rehabilitative services, which are designed to enable the individual to function near or at a prior level of independence, can have a short- or long-term focus. Veterans, people with physical disabilities, and victims of psychological trauma are among those who receive reha-bilitative human services