Human 2BServices paper 1
History, Role and Function of Human Services
The human services field encompasses a range of professions that help and assist people in various aspects of their lives, to meet everything from their basic social and psychological needs to fundamentally more practical ones, like getting food and shelter (Martin, M. E. 2007). Because some people or groups of people may often have trouble meeting these needs on their own, due to wide-ranging circumstances, human services professionals work in, and with, schools, family centers, homeless shelters, courts, drug treatment facilities, hospitals, and community agencies of all types (Martin, M. E. 2007). Regardless of the setting, human service workers share common goals, to provide clients with tools, resources, and support necessary to meet their needs, and the guidance and education to continue meeting those needs in the future (Martin, M. E. 2007). People who utilize human services may not have access to the support systems that others do, such as supportive families or friends, community, or other helpful means. They may also suffer from physical or mental disabilities, or may have gone through some trauma or displacement (Martin, M. E. 2007). In some form or other, human services have been provided to the less-fortunate by such disparate groups as the church, the government, or wealthy local landowners. Feudalism, for instance, provided for the lower classes by allotting them a small plot of land to farm during England’s Middle Ages (Martin, M. E. 2007). They were basically slaves to the landowners, and could be sold or traded as property, but it was the landowners’ obligation to ensure that they were housed, clothed, and fed, life’s three basic necessities. Churches also served the poor, with able members of a community or parish getting taxed so that those less-fortunate members could receive aid. Poverty was neither viewed as a crime nor something for which to be ashamed, but, rather, the
The human services field encompasses a range of professions that help and assist people in various aspects of their lives, to meet everything from their basic social and psychological needs to fundamentally more practical ones, like getting food and shelter (Martin, M. E. 2007). Because some people or groups of people may often have trouble meeting these needs on their own, due to wide-ranging circumstances, human services professionals work in, and with, schools, family centers, homeless shelters, courts, drug treatment facilities, hospitals, and community agencies of all types (Martin, M. E. 2007). Regardless of the setting, human service workers share common goals, to provide clients with tools, resources, and support necessary to meet their needs, and the guidance and education to continue meeting those needs in the future (Martin, M. E. 2007). People who utilize human services may not have access to the support systems that others do, such as supportive families or friends, community, or other helpful means. They may also suffer from physical or mental disabilities, or may have gone through some trauma or displacement (Martin, M. E. 2007). In some form or other, human services have been provided to the less-fortunate by such disparate groups as the church, the government, or wealthy local landowners. Feudalism, for instance, provided for the lower classes by allotting them a small plot of land to farm during England’s Middle Ages (Martin, M. E. 2007). They were basically slaves to the landowners, and could be sold or traded as property, but it was the landowners’ obligation to ensure that they were housed, clothed, and fed, life’s three basic necessities. Churches also served the poor, with able members of a community or parish getting taxed so that those less-fortunate members could receive aid. Poverty was neither viewed as a crime nor something for which to be ashamed, but, rather, the