For Social Work & Human Service Majors
The Field of Human Services
Theories and the Helping Process
An Introduction to Human Services
Human services are a sprawling area of study encompassing a variety of jobs and skill sets. The focus and defining element of human services is the helping quality in which human service workers form helping relationships with clients in order to assist with issues. The helping relationship is formed for the idea that human or social issues can be prevented, remediated, and managed. Human service workers belong to an interdisciplinary field that draws on many bodies of knowledge in order to carry out its functions within the helping relationship. As such the field of human services is dedicated to improving the quality of life for its service populations.
The Field of Human Services
Human services is founded on the concept of “helping people improve their lives”. Within this context human services is similar to social work but not exactly the same. While social work and human services share the focus of helping people, each field approaches this goal differently. Typically, human services workers concentrate their efforts on large populations in an effort to deliver services to groups as opposed to individuals. For example, human service workers may work with homeless populations as opposed to individual cases of homelessness.
In contrast to the human service worker, social workers tend to work with individuals or families. Social workers might work with domestic abuse victims for the purpose of finding these individuals housing and other services. While human services create programs for populations, social workers employ these programs to facilitate help for individuals or families. These differences between human service workers and social workers are key to understanding the field of human services due to the ambiguous nature of human services definitions. Depending on the individual or organization defining the field, the overlap between social worker and human service worker can blur.
The National Organization for Human Services (NOHS), differentiates workers based on generic knowledge and position. “Human services professional” refers to individuals working in various settings such as group homes, correctional and mental health centers, child and youth agencies, and programs addressing issues like alcoholism, drug abuse, family violence, and aging. The job titles and responsibilities can greatly vary based on the workplace and clientele.
Within the context of this definition, social workers are considered human service workers as well as alcohol counselors, welfare administrators, and any other professional field that works towards to assistance of populations whether individually or as a whole. In simplest terms, all social workers are human service workers but not all human service workers are social workers. This defining difference between human service workers and other professional workers may appear to render the definition of human service worker so broad in meaning and inclusiveness that it becomes meaningless. However, this is not the case because human service workers share common professional competencies which remain static across all fields.
For example, human service workers need to understand the nature of human systems, including community organization, policies, and social systems that create community problems. They must comprehend the causes of issues hindering positive community function, such as drug addiction, at both macro and micro levels. Workers should know when and how to intervene, using appropriate strategies for different client problems. For instance, a rise in teen drug addiction in a community would require programs specifically designed for teens.
Planning, implementing, and evaluating interventions based on individual and community needs are also crucial skills. Workers must also adhere to values that align with helping the client, as generally codified by codes of conduct or ethics statements. Understanding service needs is another key aspect, requiring specific communication skills, both written and oral, to effectively understand and convey client and resource needs.
All human service workers share these competencies and actively use them in their respective professions. Human service workers are also defined by their ability to forge and utilize the helping relationship. The helping relationship is fundamental to all human service professions.
Helping Relationships
The helping relationship refers to the relationship formed between the human service worker and the client. This relationship is based on providing relief from a particular problem or host of problems that hinder the quality of life for the client. The helping relationship is more exactly understood as a process of helping.
The helping process is a process that takes place between the human services worker and client including resource usage and intervention options. There are three components of the helping process which directly relate to the competencies necessary in human services workers. These components include assessment, planning, and application. These components create a cycle or process of help which is focused on solutions or the development of interventions that improve a condition for a client such as drug counseling for addicts.
The helping process is divided to create a robust system of help. For example, the application process of interventions contains the subprocess of documentation. The client’s progress is documented to ensure that the treatment or interventions are working. Documentation is a form of control intended to manage client assistance in terms of programs while simultaneously providing feedback for programs.
The components of the helping relationship are vital to the ongoing improvement as well as efficient use of resources. For example, within the assessment process, clients’ needs are determined based on background current issues and other profile information. This identification of needs provides workers and agencies with the ability to apply interventions appropriately. For example, abuse victims often need legal as well as financial aid in order to escape the environments they are being abused within. Resources for legal aid may be recommended in order to fully facilitate the benefit of the helping relationship.
The helping relationship relies on the competency of the worker in order to fully actualize. For example, workers are often faced with client resistance. In order to overcome this resistance, workers must be able to communicate in a manner that conveys the desire to help the client and engenders trust. This communication competency is bolstered by the identification and understanding of the causes of client resistance. Resistance can be caused by many different elements such as the client’s unhappiness with a change or circumstance. Understanding these types of issues and having the competencies to communicate with the client can reduce resistance and inspire a more effective working relationship.
Theoretical Models
Human services fields employ three models of delivery based on accepted theory. The models include the human services model, public health model, and the medical model. In general, both the medical model and public health model fail in many client situations. This failure is caused in most instances by the overly focused nature of the model.
The medical model treats human service’s issues as medical problems, such as treating a sickness or disease, although often used in interventions with drug addiction and alcoholism. However, this model is limited to issues that can be treated with medical knowledge such as the Corona virus outbreak which uses medical interventions such as mandated quarantines and hospitalization.
Similar to the medial model is the public health model which also looks at client issues from a health standpoint. However, the public health model is focused on populations and interventions that work on specific groups such as increasing high school sexual education programs in order to curb teen pregnancy. While this model may look at problems such as prostitution as a public health issue, there are many issues that it overlooks such as unemployment.
In contrast to the aforementioned models, the human services model of delivery is a robust multi resource system of interventions intended to provide clients with the most effective solutions for their individual problems. The human services model utilizes the medical and public health models as part of its mechanism for delivery. This model has the ability to deal with a number of social issues such as financial, domestic violence, legal, and health issues.
Due to the complex nature of client issues, human service workers apply comprehensive measures to solve the issues in a sustainable manner for the long term. In order to accomplish this task the human service model is used because it is a client centered approach taking into account the individual and his or her environment. This allows for a more holistic treatment of the problem(s). However, the human services model has its disadvantages with the largest issue being client perspective. Clients tend to view their problems in diverse ways and sometimes not at all.
Individuals might be unable to resolve a problem due to a lack of resources, skills, or both. There could also be a discrepancy between the helper’s and the client’s perception of the situation. For instance, the helper might see a deficiency in the client’s resources or skills, while the client might not recognize any issue. In the client’s social circle, conditions like unemployment, poor school attendance, and illiteracy might be commonplace among family and neighbors.
The human services model links directly with the necessary competencies in order to identify, plan, and communicate interventions with the client. Often the client may lack a comprehensive understanding of their issues and this will need to be communicated as well.
The human services model can be seen best in the example of interventions for domestic abuse clients. Domestic abuse issues are complicated by a number of factors such as financial, housing, and mental health issues. The problem in most instances is not solved by medical treatment for the abused and separation. These are stopgap measures that will only work in the short term and long term legal, financial, and housing assistance are necessary to provide sustainable solutions.
The Multidisciplinary Approach to Practice
Human service fields are often complicated by individual needs and the application of interventions that utilize scarce resources. In order to better facilitate the use of these resources, having an accurate understanding of client needs is imperative. The complexity of intervention strategies is caused by the nuances of individuals and how diverse people and issues alter the circumstance of the client. For example, homelessness is often complicated by other issues such as drug addiction or mental health problems. Applying services intended to get the person off the street is not a sustainable intervention because the person may end up homeless again due to a different problem such as drug addiction.
The complexity of problems can also be exacerbated by biases held by workers. For instance, significant biases exist within people towards certain groups, such as criminals. This is problematic because human service workers often work with this population and are required to provide interventions intended to assist these individuals. Bias can hinder a worker’s problem-solving abilities and consequently limit the effectiveness of interventions. To mitigate these issues related to complexity and bias, a multidisciplinary approach can be employed.
Human service intervention efficiency and effectiveness can be increased through the use of a multidisciplinary approach or team. Multidisciplinary approaches and teams are more effective than single workers because they provide comprehensive strategies derived from diverse professional knowledge.
Any dialogue should include counselors, clients, and program representatives to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the situation. The collaboration should focus on addressing the needs of the client or target population, which could encompass areas like drug care, health care, and mental healthcare. The proposed courses of action should consider sustainable solutions tailored to the client’s needs. These could include options like group homes or housing that caters to the client’s requirements. In some instances, this might involve providing rent vouchers or other forms of support such as food assistance. The human services worker would then discuss these options with the client to devise the most effective intervention, as suggested by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Multidisciplinary teams and approaches create more effective interventions in human services because they can leverage more creative input for issue resolution. The limitations of single workers create an ongoing issue of ineffective interventions. This is caused by the fact that single workers can only see the problem from one perspective and this perspective is limited by their professional capacity, perspective, and personal ideology . As such, human service workers should strive to find multidisciplinary approaches for client interventions.
