What Is Human Services?
Human Services is a concept created to counter the socio-economic, emotional and psychological challenges that many individuals, children and families encounter. It was created as a means to help improve the quality of life of the socially disadvantaged by promoting the idea that many cannot meet their basic physical and emotional needs on their own or without assistance from others.
Elements of Human Services are also dedicated not only to help people meet their basic needs but to also put them on the road to self-sufficiency.
Although Human Services encompasses a broad spectrum of practices, we will discuss a more generalized view of this concept in this essay. The goal and history of Human Services, the nature of the generalist practice, theoretical frameworks, common intervention strategies and finally, ethical considerations will all be discussed in this essay.
The Goal of Human Services
As previously mentioned, Human Services is a means by which the socially disadvantaged can be assisted in meeting their basic physical and emotional needs.
Various obstacles keep some from meeting their needs on their own. Some of these obstacles have been created by the individual himself due to bad judgment or decisions. However, more often than not the reasons why people cannot meet their basic needs are due to circumstances beyond their control (Martin, 2007).
Human service agencies (also known as social service agencies) are called upon by these individuals when they have encountered these obstacles and they do not have anyone that can help them succeed in circumventing them. These obstacles or barriers can be any number of things ranging from lack of a family or friends, unemployment and mental and/or physical illnesses (Martin, 2007).
History of Human Services
Human Services as we now know it is a relatively new concept in human history. In America, Human Services has evolved from the...