Human services


Human services is for people who need interdisciplinary field of study with the objective of meeting human needs through an applied knowledge base, focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall quality of life of service populations The process involves the study of social technologies, service technologies, and scientific innovations designed to ameliorate problems and enhance the quality of life of individuals, families and communities to improve the delivery of service with better coordination, accessibility and accountability. The mission of human services is to promote a practice that involves simultaneously working at all levels of society in the process of promoting the autonomy of individuals or groups, making informal or formal human services systems more efficient and effective, and advocating for positive social change within society.
Human services practitioners strive to advance the autonomy of service users through civic engagement, education, health promotion and social change at all levels of society. Practitioners also engage in advocating so human systems remain accessible, integrated, efficient and effective.
Human services academic programs can be easily accessible in colleges and universities, which award degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, and graduate levels. Human services programs are in countries all around the world.

History

United States

Human services has its roots all of the in charitable activities of religious and civic organizations that date back to the Colonial period. However, the academic discipline of human services did not start until the 1960s. At that time, a group of college academics started the new human services movement and began to promote the adoption of a new ideology about human service delivery and professionalism among traditional helping disciplines. The movement's major goal was to make service delivery more efficient, effective, and humane. The other goals dealt with the reeducation of traditional helping professionals to have a greater appreciation of the individual as a whole person and to be accountable to the communities they serve. Furthermore, professionals would learn to take responsibility at all levels of government, use systems approaches to consider human problems, and be involved in progressive social change.
Traditional academic programs such as education, nursing, social work, law and medicine were resistant to the new human services movement's ideology because it appeared to challenge their professional status. Changing the traditional concept of professionalism involved rethinking consumer control and the distribution of power. The new movement also called on human service professionals to work for social change. It was proposed that reducing monopolistic control on professionals could result in democratization of knowledge, thus leading to said professionals counteracting dominant establishments and advocating on behalf of their clients and communities. The movement also hoped that human service delivery systems would become integrated, comprehensive, and more accessible, which would make them more humane for service users. Ultimately, the resistance from traditional helping professions served as the impetus for a group of educators in higher education to start the new academic discipline of human services.
Some maintain that the human services discipline has a concrete identity as a profession that supplements and complements other traditional professions. Yet other professionals and scholars have not agreed upon an authoritative definition for human services.

Academic programs

United States

Development

Chenault and Burnford argued that human services programs must inform and train students at the graduate or postgraduate level if human services hoped to be considered a professional discipline. A progressive graduate human services program was established by Audrey Cohen, who was considered an innovative educator for her time. The Audrey Cohen College of Human Services, now called the Metropolitan College of New York, offered one of the first graduate programs in 1974. In the same time period, Springfield College in Massachusetts became a major force in preserving human services as an academic discipline. Currently, Springfield College is one of the oldest and largest human services program in the United States.
Manpower studies in the 1960s and 70s had shown that there would be a shortage of helping professionals in an array of service delivery areas. In turn, some educators proposed that the training of nonprofessionals could bridge this looming personnel shortage. One of the earliest educational initiatives to develop undergraduate curricula was undertaken by the Southern Regional Education Board, which was funded by the National Institute on Health. Professionals of the SREB Undergraduate Social Welfare Manpower Project helped colleges develop new social welfare programs, which later became known as human services. Some believed community college human services programs were the most expedient way to train paraprofessionals for direct service jobs in areas such as mental health. Currently, a large percentage of human services programs are run at the community college level.
The development of community college human services programs was supported with government funding that was earmarked for the federal new careers initiatives. In turn, the federally funded New Careers Program was created to produce a nonprofessional career track for economically disadvantaged, underemployed, and unemployed adults as a strategy to eradicate poverty within society and to end a critical shortage of health-care personnel. Graduates from these programs successfully acquired employment as paraprofessionals, but there were limitations to their upward mobility within social service agencies because they lacked a graduate or professional degree.

Current programs

Currently, there are academic programs in human services at the associate, baccalaureate, and graduate levels. There are approximately 600 human services programs throughout the United States. An online directory of human services programs lists many of the programs state y state in conjunction with their accreditation status from the Council for Standards in Human Services Education.
The CSHSE offers accreditation for human services programs in higher education. The accreditation process is voluntary and labor-intensive; it is designed to assure the quality, consistency, and relevance of human service education through research-based standards and a peer-review process. According to the CSHSE's webpage there are only 43 accredited human services programs in the United States.
Human services curricula are based on an interdisciplinary knowledge foundation that allows students to consider practical solutions from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Across the curriculum human services students are often taught to view human problems from a socioecological perspective that involves viewing human strengths and problems as interconnected to a family unit, community, and society. This perspective is considered a "whole-person perspective". Overall, undergraduate programs prepare students to be human services generalists while master's programs prepare students to be human services administrators, and doctoral programs prepare students to be researcher-analysts and college-level educators. Research in this field focuses on an array of topics that deal with direct service issues, case management, organizational change, management of human service organizations, advocacy, community organizing, community development, social welfare policy, service integration, multiculturalism, integration of technology, poverty issues, social justice, development, and social change strategies.

Certification and continuing education

United States Of America

Not all graduates from human services programs can obtain a Human Services Board Certified Practitioner credential offered by the Center for Credentialing & Education. The HS-BCP certification ensures that human services practitioners offer quality services, are competent service providers, are committed to high standards, and adhere to the NOHS Ethical Standards of Human Service Professionals, as well as to help solidify the professional identity of human services practitioners. HS-BCPE Experience Requirements for the certification: HS-BCP applicants must meet post-graduation experience requirements to be eligible to take the examination. However, graduates of a CSHSE accredited degree program may sit for the HS-BCP exam without verifying their human services work experience. Otherwise experience requirements for candidates not from a CSHSE accredited program are as follows: Associate degree with post degree experience requires three years, including a minimum of 4,500 hours; Bachelor's Degree with post degree experience requires two years, including a minimum of 3,000 hours; Master's or Doctorate with post degree experience requires one year, including a minimum of 1,500 hours.
The HS-BCP exam is designed to verify a candidate's human services knowledge. The exam was created as a collaborative effort of human services subject-matter experts and normed on a population of professionals in the field. The HS-BCP exam covers the following areas:
  1. Assessment, treatment planning, and outcome evaluation
  2. Theoretical orientation/interventions
  3. Case management, professional practice, and ethics
  4. Administration, program development/evaluation, and supervision

    Tools and methodology

There are numerous different tools and methods utilized in human services. For example, qualitative and quantitative surveys are administered to define community problems that need addressing. These surveys can narrow down what service is needed, who would receive it, for how long, and where the problem is concentrated. Additional necessary skills include strong communication and professional coordination- since networking is crucial for obtaining and transporting resources to areas of need. Lack of these skills could lead to dangerous consequences as a communities needs are not adequately met. Furthermore, research is a key component to the successful conduct of human service. Both theoretical and empirical research is required if one is to pursue a career in human services because being uninformed can leave communities in confusion and disarray- thus perpetuating the problem that was supposed to be resolved. In relation to social work, a professional must be unbiased and patient because they will be closely working with a vast and diverse population who are often in extremely dire situations. Allowing one's personal beliefs to bleed into their human service profession could negatively impact the quality of and or limit the scope of potential outreach.