Changing Nature of Helping in Human Services Essay HUM 8150

In the field of human services, cases may sometimes seem more direct than they truly are, posing challenges in defining problems for clients. It is important, however, to recognize the multidimensionality of clients’ needs in order to provide optimal service in these situations. For this Discussion, review the media program “Introduction to the Case Study” for an overview by Dr. Barbara Benoliel. Changing Nature of Helping in Human Services Essay HUM 8150 Then, review the media program, “The Situation: Chapter 1.” As you consider the overt issues of the case and the multidimensionality of the specific client’s needs, reflect on how these factors and the changing nature of human services might influence how incidents are defined.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post a description of how the domestic dispute incident was defined in the media presentation. Then, explain how you would prefer to see this incident defined. Finally, explain how the changing nature of helping in human services might impact the definition of the incident and why.

HUM 8150: Helping individuals, organizations, and communities; Introduction to human services

Week 2 Notes – The Changing Nature of Helping

Chapter 2

• Social attitudes about behavior go through cycles. Sometimes they reverse themselves from one era to another. These immigrants to the United States, landing at Ellis Island early in the twentieth century, faced adversity, but their labor was welcomed. Now, many of their dependents vote to restrict the entry and social benefits of new waves of hopeful immigrants (page 29)
• Social Darwinism – The application of Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution to the human sphere by sociologist Herbert Spencer. The concept of “survival of the fittest” was used to justify accumulation of wealth and disregard of the needs of the poor.
• Victim Blaming – Blaming a person for his or her own misfortune rather that considering the social forces that contributed to the problem. (page 31)
• Deserving versus Undeserving – The discriminatory classification of people into higher and lower categories, considering some people to be more worth of receiving benefits and services than others. (“they” and “us”)
• Means Tested Programs – Programs that are available only to the poor, whose assets fall below a certain set eligibility level (entrapping them in poverty for fear of doing better and losing the assistance)
• Residual Philosophy of Social Welfare – A philosophy that believes the problem that requires help is not a “normal” social need but arises because of special circumstances brought about by individual deficiency.
• Institutional Philosophy of Social Welfare – A philosophy that looks at people as being embedded in a social system and as having predicable developmental needs.
• Universal Programs – Programs that provide income supports and social services to both the affluent and the poor.
• Entitlements – Benefits and services that people have a legal right to, as compared to those that are given at the discretion of officials.
• Progressive Taxes – Taxes that tax the rich at a higher rate than those who are less affluent.
• Opportunity Theory – The theory that people are prevented from getting out of poverty because of their lack of social opportunities rather than because of their individual defects. (page 33)
• The War on Poverty began in 1964 with the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act. By default the War on Poverty adopted the culture of poverty theory and aimed to change the social characteristics and potential of the poor rather than redistribute society’s resources.
  • Educational programs such as Head Start and Job Corps were created
  • Poverty was greatly reduced during the 1960s due to an expanding economy and expandged social welfare benefits (page 34)
• George Gilder “Wealth and Poverty (1981)
  • His advice to the poor was to work harder than the classes above them and to stay in monogamous families.
  • He believed that inequality is good for society because it raises everyone’s living standards, including those of the poor.
  • Welfare Queen – A socially deviant woman of color (unwed teen parent, non-wage worker, drug user, long-term recipient).
• The Catholic Bishops claimed that poverty violated a sense of community. It “assaults not only one’s pocket book, but also one’s fundamental human dignity”. (page 37)
• In 1996 Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Person Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• Personal Responsibility Act – “Reducing Illegitimacy” declared that marriage is the foundation of a successful society (page 38)
• As welfare and other safety net programs were cut back, the criminal justice system expanded.
• Principle of Less Eligibility – The principle that the amount of welfare given to people should be less than the lowest wage so that people will not be tempted to take welfare rather than get a wage-earning job. (page 44)
• Progressives – Members of the Progressive party in the early 20^th century who favored social reforms such as abolition of child labor, juvenile courts, and more individualized treatment of the mentally ill (page 47)
• Mental Patients’ Liberation Front (MPLF) – An organization of people who are or have been patients in psychiatric hospitals and who oppose many established psychiatric practices. MPLF has established support groups and alternative institutions. (page 48)
• Deinstitutionalization – A large scale reform movement that took people out of institutions and hospitals and returned them to their community with special services to aid their reintegration. 1955 (page 53)
• Child-Saving Movement – A term used to describe the efforts of reformers in the late 19^th– early 20^th century to rescue children from “unwholesome influences”. The movement let to the development of children’s institutions, foster care, and the juvenile court.
• Among the first human service workers were doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers and the clergy (page 67)
• Today the human services umbrella:
  • Claims workers in government benefits programs
  • Cooperative extension workers
  • Counselots
  • Music therapist, art therapists and dance therapists
  • Residential-care workers with children, disabled, aged, people with drug and alcohol problems, parolees
  • Psychologists
  • Social workers
  • Speech pathologists
  • Therapy and rehabilitation workers
• Charity Organization Societies (COSs) – The earliest professional social work agencies, organized first in England and later in the US; they claimed to deliver “scientific charity” through case-by-case work of “friendly visitors” (page 68)
• The following influences have helped the human service profession grow:
  • The civil rights and liberation struggles
  • The OEO War on Poverty
  • The New Careers for the Poor Movement
  • The growth of community colleges
  • Deinstitutionalization and contracting out (page 72-73)

Reid Mandell, B., & Schram, B. (2012). An introduction to human services: Policy and practice (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

• Governments contract out government responsibilities to private corporations, attempting to have private entities perform a public function while still holding these corporations publicly accountable. This article presents a study of three aspects of accountability that are essential to the contractual relationship established by government and the private firm managing the private prison: formation, maintenance, and liability.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER Changing Nature of Helping in Human Services Essay HUM 8150

Gran, B., & Henry, W. (2007). Holding private prisons accountable: a socio-legal analysis of “contracting out” prisons. Social Justice, (3–4), 173. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.183553469&site=eds-live&scope=site

 

• Private centers reported significantly more annual admissions (p< .01) and full-time equivalent employees (p< .05). These differences are at least partly a function of the greater prevalence of inpatient programming in private sector services that require more staff resources but also have shorter treatment durations, permitting more client admissions in a given period.
• Private sector facilities (partly, but not entirely, due to more common hospital affiliations) are significantly more likely to have a physician available, either on a full-time or a contractual basis. Likewise, a greater proportion of counselors in private centers hold at least a master’s degree compared to those employed in public centers.

Roman, P. M., Ducharme, L. J., & Knudsen, H. K. (2006). Patterns of organization and management in private and public substance abuse treatment programs. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 31(3), 235–243.

 

 

The Situation Chapter 1 (video)

Wife cheated on husband. He assaulted the wife.

John calls his sister from jail

Human Services professional meets with John