Introduction
Human beings are the most complex things on earth as agreed by most of the philosophers and socialists. Not only the human body, rather human nature is difficult to predict and understand in various situations. Since human psychology is difficult to understand at times, this generates social issues and problems in communities. However, there are ways to address those issues, cater to the problems, and devise solutions to promote mental harmony and comfort to human nature.
Probably this is why the social sciences are way more complex, difficult, and abstract than other subjects. Human Services is one of those topics which deals with human psychology, issues resolving, conflict resolution, empathy as well as professional support and development.
Although this is not a new concept, the emergence and formal development of human services have taken place recently while the mobility in today’s world and technology has played an important role in bringing people together, making interactions easier and quicker and helping community services to promote through unhindered access and affordability in the modern age. This report intends to focus on the human services topic itself with an overview of the websites available on the internet that provide such services and what domain do they operate in. Also, this report will look into different competency skills needed to be a good human service practitioner and the comments on them.
Human Services
Human services is a field that has emerged recently; although the concept is not new, however, the formal human services are extended with the advent of technology in a more formalized and structured way in communities to address the social and human psychological issues. The field of Human Services deals with a diversified domain of human needs, interaction problems, social agreements, cultural and professional issues. It required a broad perspective and multidisciplinary knowledge base to address the issues and cater to the solutions so that there is an agreement by the person seeking resolution as well (NHS, 2009).
Such human services are now being extended through the use of technology that is the internet. Different websites allow acquiring human services while employing the capable and competent human services workers to address the resolution of the human problem, Such sites include,
- National Organization for Human Services
- Department of Human Services, Victoria, Australia
- DHS – Department of Human Services
- Tennessee Department of Human Services
- DHS: Illinois Department of Human Services
- Vermont Agency of Human Services
We will look into the Vermont Agency of Human Services (humanservices.vermont.gov) to understand the concept and services offered in the domain of Human Services.
Vermont Agency of Human Resources, primarily called The Agency of Human Services (AHS) is based in the Vermont state of north-eastern United States of America and occupies a large land area with little dense population. They extend their human services with the focus of well being and caring for those people who remain deprived or lack care when it is needed. This may include the old age people, young children, orphans, deprived families, addicted adults, or disabled people in society.
They also support rehabilitation and settling up the family problems to create an issue free society in the state. Even though the agency is based n Vermont State, they extend their human services through supporting Vermonters going somewhere else and needing care or support services. The diversity in their services offered to the people can be acknowledged by the fact that they have developed their main site contents in several languages including English, Arabic, French, Hispanic, Hindi, etc.
This reflects the aim of the agency seen globally in terms of serving the people in a large context. Since its a government based agency and has strong roots, they do not just offer health care services, rehabilitation supports, issue resolutions, and guidance, but also develop people to come into this field and serve the virtuous field of Human Services (Vermont, n.d).
Usually, there is a multidisciplinary trait required in the person who deals with such services. These competency skills may include,
- Understanding the nature of a person and being a good observant.
- Understanding the society and community norms and their practices.
- Good interaction capability with the people and understand their issues in their shoes.
- Good analysis skills and be able to select an appropriate strategy to address the issue.
- Good process skills and competency in identifying the interventions (Hogan, 2007).
Although the site seems to be an easy go for the people visiting, these are few favorable and unfavorable comments for the website.
Favorable
- The site has developed it’s home page main content in several languages that depict the aspect of universality.
- The site directs towards other resources as well that may be useful for visitors in terms of human services.
- The agency opens its budget reports to allow transparency and capacity to meet the human services demand.
Unfavorable
- The site often uses the word “Vermont” little excessively that gives a local look in its domain of human services.
- There could be a visible link for any prospective client to drop his/her issue to the agency without any hassle on the website.
- The site could create an attractive section where they may demonstrate different examples where they served purposefully and successfully in the domain of human services.
References
Hogan, M. (2007). The four skills of cultural diversity competence; a process for understanding and practice (3rd ed.). Brooks/Cole Publishing.
NHS. (2009). What is Human Services? Web.
Vermont. (n.d). Welcome to the Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS). Web.