Essay on Final Reflection Paper
Introduction
In actuality, the work of human service practitioners is very important for the contemporary society because many people are in urgent need of external assistance from the part of human service practitioners, who can help them to integrate in the society, to find positive lifestyle and to develop more optimistic views of their life. Traditionally, human service practitioners focus on people, who are in crisis provoked by stress, injuries, loss of family members or other problems that may affect the lifestyle and views of people, provoke severe depression and negative view of life. The development of effective policies is one of the primary goals of human service practitioners because the effective policy contributes to the effective performance of human service practitioners and achievement of their professional goals. At the same time, human service practitioners should be able to perform different roles to provide services for their clients effectively. In this regard, the development of a guide to policy and policy making for human service practitioners is very important because such a guide can help many human service practitioners to elaborate effective approaches to their work and to identify accurately their professional goals as well as to develop new effective strategies that can help them to improve their performance.
The essence of the work of human service practitioners
Traditionally, the work of human service practitioners is closely intertwined with helping people in need, who have suffered a deep crisis in their life provoked by different issues. To put it more precisely, human service practitioners focus on the assistance and empowerment of individuals, groups, families and communities to prevent, alleviate or better cope with crisis, change, and stress to enable them to function more effectively in all areas of life and living. In such a way, human service practitioners perform very important functions in the contemporary society because many people face considerable problems, especially when they are left alone, face to face with their problems. They need the assistance of the community and society but, often, communities pay little attention to people in need, while community members have their own problems to tackle. The position of people in need, who suffer from physical injuries, stress and other problems, becomes unbearable, especially if they have no support from the part of family members or when they lose family member or members. In such a situation, the assistance of human service practitioners becomes crucial for the return of people suffering from stress or any other crisis to the normal life. These people are in trouble and they cannot cope with their problem and the assistance of human service practitioners is very important. People, who are deprived of the support of family members, are in a particularly difficult position, while the loss of a family member may provoke a crisis that will need the direct involvement of human service practitioners to help individuals, who have lost their family members.
In such a way, human service practitioners should come prepared to work with people in crisis and they should be able to help them to cope with their problems. Human service practitioners should attempt to return their clients to the normal social life and to the development of a positive view of life. Human service practitioners have to come prepared to the hard work because people in crisis have special needs and human service practitioners should adapt to their needs. Therefore, they should be able to perform different roles and functions and develop multiple professional skills and abilities. In such a way, human service practitioners can be effective and successful in their professional performance.
Goal of human service practitioners
Taking into consideration the essence of the work of human service practitioners, it is possible to define the assistance of people in crisis as one of the major goals of human service practitioners. At the same time, it is worth mentioning the fact that human service practitioners’ goal is not only assisting and helping people in crisis. In fact, they should also enable people to live more satisfying, more autonomous, and more productive life, through utilization of the society’s knowledge, resources and technical innovations (Beck, 1993). In such a way, human service practitioners perform the function of mediators between the society and people in crisis. Their primary goal is enabling people in crisis to help people in need to improve their life and to use the assistance of the society to tackle their problems successfully. In such a way, human service practitioners help their clients to return to the normal life and to improve the quality of living through more productive and better life.
In fact, the contemporary society has substantial resources that can help people in crisis to cope with their problems. However, the problem is that people are often unavailable of resources and opportunities available to them in the contemporary society. Human service practitioners help individuals to learn about recent advancements in technology and to reveal opportunities for the consistent improvement of their life. They help people in crisis to use social and technological resources and opportunities provided for them by the contemporary society to integrate into the social life and to lead a normal, positive lifestyle, regardless of their problems. Therefore, human service practitioners attempt to reach their goals and they use available technologies and resources delivering them to their clients. The achievement of professional goals of human service practitioners is strategically important because it helps them to perform their functions effectively. Otherwise, their work becomes pointless.
The human service practice model
Human service practitioners need to elaborate an effective human service practice model which can help them to deliver services to their clients and to achieve their goals. In fact, human service practitioners should work hard on the elaboration of the human service practice model that is the most effective in regard to their clients. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that human service practitioners can use different models and they have to take into consideration needs of their clients and their background. Specialists (Davison & Neale, 2001) point out that the background of clients is very important, when human service practitioners develop the human service model to be used to deliver their services. For instance, some clients may be deprived of the assistance from the part of their family members and human service practitioners can compensate the lack of the family support by the community support. They can help their clients to make more friends and to develop positive relations with other community members. In such a way, human service practitioners can use the community-based human service model that involves the close cooperation between human service practitioners, communities and clients. At this point, the assistance of human service practitioners focuses on the development of the positive relationship between their clients and their communities.
On the other hand, the community-based model may be ineffective, when human service practitioners’ clients have caring family members, who are willing to help their relatives. If human service practitioners neglect the support of the family and focus on the support of the community, their clients may feel uncertain about the professional level of human service practitioners and their ability to help them because normally people believe their family members and if human service practitioners fail to use the support of family members, the human service model turns out to be ineffective. Therefore, human service practitioners should take into consideration needs of their clients, assess their background and potential of their close social environment to be used in the provision of human services. In such a way, human service practitioners can choose the most effective model of human service being provided for their clients.
Furthermore, the choice of the model depends on the resources available to human service practitioners and their clients. What is meant here is the fact that human service practitioners cannot choose the model they like the most or they have used successfully in the past. Instead, they should understand what resources are actually available to them that can be used in the provision of human services for their clients. For instance, if human service practitioners have once used successfully the family therapy, they cannot apply this model to clients, who have lost their family member or members. Instead, they should look for other models and options to deliver effective human services to their clients.
The role of human service practitioners
While working with clients, human service practitioners should be able to perform different roles. The choice of the role depends on the goal and specific services delivered for each client. Clients have different needs and human service practitioners should perform roles that help them to match their goals and to enable their clients to return to the normal life and to develop a positive lifestyle. At the same time, using the specific role implies the in-depth knowledge of human service practitioners and their professional skills in the specific field which role they perform because each role implies a set of professional skills that human service practitioners have to possess and to be able to apply in their work with clients.
One of the roles performed by human service practitioners is the role of counselor. The role of counselor involves the work of human service practitioners with individuals and groups to help identify and solve problems of everyday living using behavioral and social science theory (Albano & Kearney 2000). In fact, human service practitioners working as counselors for their clients should focus on the development of positive models of behavior in their clients because they help to integrate clients into the normal social life and to develop a positive view on their lifestyle. In addition, human service practitioners performing the role of counselors should use the full potential of communities and their positive impact on individuals and target groups.
Alternatively, human service practitioners can perform the role of outreach workers. Outreach workers provide information to communities and carry out liaison activities in surrounding communities (Sue & Sue, 2006). In fact, the role of outreach workers implies the involvement of the community-based model in the provision of human services for clients. The close cooperation between human service practitioners and local communities is very important for the effective performance of human service practitioners and the accomplishment of their goals in the assistance to their clients. This role is particularly effective, when human service practitioners work with groups of clients because they can develop positive relationships with local community easier than individual clients. Groups of clients are perceived by local communities as more significant social entities than individual clients.
Furthermore, the role of a broker is another role that may be performed by human service practitioners. This role helps clients to identify their needs and utilize new services (Burns, 1999). Human service practitioners provide clients with useful information on social services and current technologies available to them which can help clients to improve their life and to develop positive lifestyle.
In addition, human service practitioners can perform the role of advocates. Advocates champion and defend clients’ causes and rights (Sue & Sue, 2006). Human service practitioners may not have the professional legal education or work in the field of justice and law but still they have certain knowledge and skills that help them to protect rights and causes of their clients and, more important, human service practitioners can help clients to protect their rights and causes on their own, without the assistance of human service practitioners. In such a way, clients learn of their causes and rights and, more important, they learn to defend them and use them.
The role of researcher/evaluator involves the assessment of clients’ programs and reveals that agencies are accountable for services provided. The assessment of clients’ programs is very important because often client are unaware of existing programs or services, which they may receive or count on. Hence, human service practitioners help them to identify those programs and services and benefit from using them to the full extent.
Human service practitioners can also perform the role of a teacher/educator. This role models new behaviors for clients and conveys new skills (Sue & Sue, 2006). In fact, human service practitioners can help their clients to develop new, positive models of behavior and develop new skills. The development of new skills and behaviors can help clients to cope with their problems, to distract and to elaborate new goals in their life that will change their lifestyle.
Human service practitioners can also work as behavior specialists since they carry out a range of activities planned primarily to change the behavior of clients, including coaching, problem solving, counseling and behavioral management (Sue & Sue, 2006). In fact, the change of behavioral patterns is one of the crucial elements of the work of human service practitioners because clients often suffer from negative behavioral patterns that can make their life unbearable, while the change of behavioral patterns often changes the life of clients for better.
Furthermore, the role of mobilizers implies that human service practitioners organize clients and community to obtain new community services and resources (Sue & Sue, 2006). Hence, human service practitioners help to develop new services and to use all resources available in communities to help their clients. In this regard, clients cannot use these services without the support of human service practitioners.
At the same time, human service practitioners can perform the role of consultants that involves the use of specialized knowledge of human service practitioners to work with other professionals, health and human service agencies regarding their handling problems, needs and programs. Therefore, human service practitioners collaborate closely with different health and human service agencies to deliver human services to their clients. The support of these agencies is essential because human service practitioners alone cannot tackle all the problems of their clients, especially if their clients have health problems or held a low social standing.
Another role that may be performed by human service practitioners is the role of community planners, which also involves the close cooperation between human service practitioners and communities, where their clients live. This role implies that human service practitioners design, plan and organize new programs to serve clients’ needs (Sue & Sue, 2006). The development of new programs is essential for the provision of human services because needs of clients change and so should do programs offered by human service practitioners and different agencies.
Furthermore, human service practitioners perform the role of care managers/case managers that implies the assessment of individual clients, assisting in the development of care and treatment plan, arrangement for service delivery, monitoring service delivery and other functions performed by care givers (Sue & Sue, 2006). Similarly, human service practitioners can perform the role of administrators that implies management and supervision of activities that are involved in the provision of human services (Sue & Sue, 2006).
Conclusion
Thus, the work of human service practitioners involves a complex work of professionals, who should have multiple skills and extensive experience in different fields. Human service practitioners should choose the human service model that matches the best needs of their clients and resources available to them. In addition, human service practitioners should be able to perform different roles that are important for their clients and delivery of human services to them.
