Overview of Human Services as a Profession
Question:
Discuss about the Human Service and Organisation.
The concept of human services is broadly defined and it helps in the unique approaching of the aim of fulfilling human requirements by an “interdisciplinary knowledge base”. There also needs to be a focus on the prevention and remediation of problems as well and maintenance of commitment for the improvement of overall quality of service populations. The human services profession helps in the promotion of improved services. It also helps in the “improvement of accessibility, accountability and coordination among professionals and agencies in the delivery of service”.
The field of “”human services is broadly defined and it helps in “uniquely approaching the aim of meeting human needs by means of a disciplinary knowledge base and it focuses on the prevention as well as the remediation of problems and maintenance of commitment for improving the overall quality of life for service populations”. The human services profession promotes enhanced delivery and service systems by “addressing the quality of direct services and also seeking to improve accessibility, accountability and coordination amongst professionals and also agencies in the delivery of service”.
In this connection it can be said that the people who have professional and other jobs in such diverse settings in cases such as group homes, halfway houses, correctional, intellectual disabilities, community mental health centres, family, child, youth service agencies, programs and so on are known as human service professionals. The main purpose of the human services professional is to help in serving the clients and the job duties and titles also vary by a great deal.
The main aim of the “human service professional” is in helping individuals and communities to perform as effectively as they can in all crucial domains of living. There is a very strong desire to help others in all those people who want to take part in human service activities. The helping attitude is a very strong desire for a job. Individuals who show a certain amount of patience, understanding and caring in their dealings with others are very much valued by their employers. Such people are valued in the human service organisations due to their ability to help people. The chief personal traits include “communication skills, a strong sense of responsibility and the capability to manage time effectively”.
The following help in the description of the “generic knowledge, skills and attitudes” which are required in the human services work. The training and preparation for an individual worker which within a particular framework changes due to the setting of the work, the specific client population served and the level in which the organisations work.
There is the need to understand the nature of the human systems, individual groups, organisations, communities or societies which also comprise of their major interactions. All workers need to have an “understanding of major models of causation which are concerned with the promotion of healthy functioning and also concerned with the treatment rehabilitation. There needs to be medically oriented, socially oriented psychologically behavioural oriented and educationally oriented models”.
Aims and Duties of Human Service Professionals
There needs to be the identification of skills in the planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions. The worker can design a particular plan of action for an identified problem and the implementation of the plan in a systematic way. There is also the requirement of an “understanding of the problem analysis, decision analysis and design of work plans”. There also needs to be a proper utilization of the generic skills which can be utilized in the social systems and for use in individual clients or organisations (Thomas & Rothman, 2013).
There needs to be a consistency of behaviour of the professionals which help in selection of interventions which are congruent with the values of a person, clients and employing the organisation and the human service profession. This also requires awareness of a person’s own value orientation and an understanding of organisational values as expressed in the goal statement of the organisation, the human service ethics and appreciation of the values of the clients values, life style and goals (Paxton et al., 2015).
The operational conditions of service professionals might vary. The human service workers in the social service workplaces usually spend a certain division of the time in the office and the rest in the field. There are chances of compensatory work as well. Human service professionals work in the residential settings at different shift times. Often professionals who are taken in newer settings might require supervision in case their responsibilities vary or they are assigned tasks which take a major amount of their time. The employed human service workers need to balance their time effectively so that they can arrange for their work management and also the time which they devote to their work and to the human service activities (Gray et al., 2015).
There are nationwide integrated services in the aspect of Mission Australia which are useful in helping people find safe and affordable housing, giving support to the disadvantaged children and families, empower the people who are young but troubled, assist people with mental illness and disability along with several other factors. Therefore it is needed that early intervention and prevention is at the heart of work. Mission Australia has a very long history of working with governments at all levels. This is done being a service provider as well as an organisation which is capable of influencing. The majority of services which are delivered by the company are funded by the government. This is done by means of a transparent tender process which is to secure contracts for a determined period. Other services are reliant on the generosity of the partners and several Australians who are capable of providing support.
It is believed by Mission Australia that every person needs to have access to safe and secure amount of housing facilities. It is a crucial part of the maintenance of good health and also being part of a community. The shortage of affordable housing and high rents implies that the people are increasingly vulnerable to the homelessness. The organisation provides services to the children and families who need it, youth services, provision to disability inclusion and support and also training regarding the employment skills and training. The alcohol, drugs and dependency support is also provided to the professionals.
Skills and Attitudes Necessary for Effective Practice
In the present world there is an increasing diversity of demand to understand what services need to be provided to the population and there are also requirements of care and ability to meet the requirements of those individuals who are being served. Working with culturally diverse clients brings certain challenges. Language is central to a person’s ability. The experiences and perceptions of issues in such diversity is necessary to be understood in human services (Monette, Sullivan & DeJong, 2013).
The Code of Ethics emphasizes on the fact that human service professionals and counsellors are ethically obligated to work at understanding the diverse and culturally varied backgrounds of the client whom they serve. The ethics of multicultural counselling need to be need to be mentioned to the professionals so that they are maintained at all costs. There needs to be a proper awareness among the people regarding the aims of the cultural competence and the exiting varieties of culture and bias. There cannot be any sort of engagement in discrimination and there also needs to be an understanding of the diverse backgrounds from which students come from (Kadushin, 2012).
Human services need a proper amount of time and patience. Human service professionals need to seek cultural competence, pursue awareness of their own, do not engage in discrimination of any sort, understand and respect clients and their attitudes and values regarding different forms of human services among others. The techniques which need to be applied have to be selected in advance based on proper study. Appropriate references need to be made with regard to the flexibility with which the different procedures are to be applied (Adamson, 2012).
Conflicts might arise between the existing code of ethics and laws, policies in the workplace, cultural practices and even personal beliefs. Ethical decision making procedures need to be incorporated in order to ensure that careful choices are being made. Despite the fact that ethical codes are not legal documents, there are chances that these documents can be utilized later to address concerns related to the behaviour of human service professionals.
The code of ethics is also conserved with the protection of the client records at all times. The client information which is shared with other individuals in written or electronic form needs to have prior permission preferably written consent from the clients themselves. In case of professional supervision, or prior knowledge about the requirement of the client, such confidential information might be shared (McGaw, 2014).
In case of Mission Australia, the professionals are those who seek training, need to have understanding, learning and administration in order to ensure their efficacy is operational in the human services. The professionals from different genres are selected and thereafter they are given suitable training to ensure that they understand their responsibilities, work duties and can perform them effectively. “Human service professionals” also promote the progressing development of their vocation. There are different well established training programmes which are available in order to support health as well as human service so that the way in which the professionals deal with children are understood properly. There are suicide prevention trainings available so that the professionals can deal with the people who are thinking of committing suicide.
There are several people who suffer from mental health issues and therefore suffer from these issues in their lives. Mental illness is capable of impacting the psychological, physical, emotional and spiritual well being of a person. The impact of mental illness hampers the ability of an individual to function properly. Therefore at Mission Australia, support is delivered from a recovery led view which is thought to be the most effective approach for people who have a mental illness.
Human service professionals need to maintain the ethics of their profession at all times. The most importance of the standards are those in the ethical and professional decision-making. The crucial principles of “human services” involve “respecting the dignity and welfare of all people, promotion of self-determination, honouring cultural diversity, advocating for social justice and ultimately acting with integrity, honestly, genuineness and objectivity”. Human service professionals get the consent which they require from higher authorities to provide the required services to their clients at the time of the relationship which is established between them. There is the information which is provided to the clients on the fact that they might withdraw their consent of services at all times.
It is the duty of the human service professionals to ensure that they “protect the client’s right to privacy and confidentiality” except in cases when it has the potential to cause serious harm to the clients or other people. In case of the services to the children, their welfare are to be maintained at all times. In case there might be problems which may rise in case of the clients might lead to the impairment of their professional judgements. It is therefore not at all feasible to avoid any sort of dual or multiple relationships so that the professional relationships are restored and maintained.
Conclusion:
There are several free community services which are provided by Mission Australia and these are applicable in even the remote most parts of Australia. It is the right of every person to have a healthy and happy life. The job of Mission Australia is to asst families in the provision of security, care and support which is crucial for the development of a person. The community services also work with families in order to help them deal with the specific challenges which can cause harm to people and long term unemployment. Therefore the people get the best of services possible due to the community possible.
References:
Adamson, P. (2012). Measuring child poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world’s rich countries (No. inreca660).
Beausang, J., Farrell, A., & Walsh, K. (2012). Young people whose parents are separated or divorced: A case for researching their experiences at the intersection of home and school. Educational Research, 54(3), 343-356.
Gray, M., Dean, M., Agllias, K., Howard, A., & Schubert, L. (2015). Perspectives on neoliberalism for human service professionals. Social Service Review, 89(2), 368-392.
Kadushin, G. (2012). The social work interview: A guide for human service professionals. Columbia University Press.
Mackelprang, R. W., & Salsgiver, R. (2016). Disability: A diversity model approach in human service practice. Oxford University Press.
McGaw, B. (2014). Cross-curriculum priorities are options, not orders. Newsmonth, 34(2), 18.
Monette, D. R., Sullivan, T. J., & DeJong, C. R. (2013). Applied social research: A tool for the human services. Cengage Learning.
Paxton, G., Tosif, S., Graham, H., Smith, A., Reveley, C., Standish, J., … & Marais, B. (2015). Perspective:‘The forgotten children: national inquiry into children in immigration detention (2014)’. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(4), 365-368.
Thomas, E. J., & Rothman, J. (2013). Intervention research: Design and development for human service. Routledge.
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