Human Services Reflection

Limited healthcare in the United States forces those who are too sick to get coverage are either forced to pay large medical bills or die. If those individuals were able to see a doctor more regularly, then their health could have been followed sooner. A few years ago, I was unemployed from work a battling a health issue that caused me to lose my job. Originally, I lost my health insurance and then was offered a plan through Cobra. The premium amount that I was requested was over a $1000 per month. Luckily, I was able to be add on to my husband’s plan so I could still receive treatment. When you are not able to receive healthcare even for simple situations like an antibiotic for a cold has the potential to turn into pneumonia or something worse that could cause death. As we get older, our bodies have a harder time fighting infections and we are more likely to have a serve health issue like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease; which all cause severe implications on the body that hinder both the physical and psychological development of an

The first article, “Poverty in the United States: An Overview” by Cliff Brown, is about poverty in America and its characteristics. Those living in poverty have more health and educational issues, and individuals who fall below the poverty level are among the most vulnerable and distressed in the United States. Factors such as: race, ethnicity, family structure, sex, age, and geography are linked to poverty.(p. 89) One of the most striking points brought up in this article, also in relation to geography and family, is the fact that circumstances of one 's birth so clearly affects the odds of experiencing poverty, which contradicts the notion that all americans have an equal chance to succeed in life.(p. 89) With 37 million people living below the poverty line in the US, which is about 12.5% of the total overall population, there are many people being born everyday with less opportunities than others(p.89). Poverty tends to be concentrated among children, female headed families, racial and ethnic minority groups, and regionally, in the Southern United States. Children have replaced elderly as the most vulnerable age group while female headed households with no husband are nearly six times more likely to experience poverty than married households(p. 91).

Everyday in the United States there are families who struggle to make ends meet and struggle to fully provide for their families. Since the 1960s, poverty in the United States has only increased dramatically. It is said that one in six Americans today is living in poverty (What is poverty?). In this book, we learn about different families and their struggles. The information in this book describe instances about welfare, different areas of the population where there are more occurrences of poverty, and a few different families experiences of how they make it day by day to survive. Some of these common organizations that help families that live in poverty may include, food stamps, certain food programs (if

The lack of health insurance reached began to become a serious issue in the mid-1990’s reaching a crisis level in the 2000’s. Individuals without insurance turned to emergency rooms across the country to obtain care routine care, turning emergency departments into primary care facilities. In many instances, people who presented at emergency rooms for treatment could not be turned away due to various health and safety regulations; therefore, patients were seen without the ability to pay often leaving the hospitals with millions of dollars in uncollectable debt, subsequently leading to the insolvency of hundreds of hospitals across the United States.

Not having health insurance makes a difference in people’s access to needed medical care and their financial security. The barriers the uninsured face in getting the care that they need means they are less likely to receive preventive care, are more likely to be hospitalized for conditions that could have been prevented, and are more likely to die in the hospital than those with insurance.  The financial impact can also be severe. Uninsured families already struggle financially to meet basic needs, and medical bills, even for minor problems, can quickly lead to medical debt. (McCarter, 2011)

Part ONE: Please discuss your experiences at your site. What did you do? What were the clients like? The staff?

I have learned a great many things from being in the Practicum of Human Services. It has changed my entire outlook on and my attitude toward my life. Before my senior year at Irving High School, I was shy, had low self-esteem, and avoided seemingly impossible challenges. This class has altered all of my worst qualities. On the first day helping the L.I.F.E. skills kids, I was afraid because I was clumsy and socially awkward. These qualities have not gone away, but I do not let them disable me. The fact of the matter is, I was not really open to this new challenge at first. I did not want to be the one at fault if something went wrong. I did not want the responsibility because I was too afraid of making a mistake. All the while, this became

1. They have mentioned building motivation in a few of my human services classes, but I never really learned how exactly you build it. Now I know about the different strategies and tools that counselors use when trying to build their clients motivation.

When I reflect on the reason I decided to take a career in Human Services more than 20 years ago. I have to remember it was because of the mission and values of most agencies. Most Human Services strive to improve the quality of life for the population they are serving. However, there are agencies with missions to improve the quality of life but therefore reality is to improve their banking accounts. Although, salary and benefits are vital. They are not most important and will not have the most influences in my decision to work for an organization.

I have learned that individuals within the society embrace their differences for the sake of coexistence. Everyone is different, everyone is an individual, everyone has their own needs and wants and desires and ambitions. The society where an individual grow faces challenges day to day. Once we better understand ourselves we can learn from each other to create better opportunities for ourselves

I am currently employed by an insurance agency in the long term care industry. We provide home and community based services to Tennesseans who are elderly or disabled. The goal of my program is to provide services to people to assist them to remain in their homes, safely and cost effectively, as long as they possibly can. Because healthcare is ever-changing, it is important that my organization stays on top of current trends and utilizes all method to predict the long direction the company will need to take. The division that I currently work for is a great example of looking towards the future and not allowing the quarterly report to dictate what the company does. There is a new program for developmentally and intellectually delayed individuals that the Bureau of TNcare has theorized and gave to the MCO’s to implement. This program is designed to save the state of Tennessee money by allowing the insurance companies (MCO’s) to manage the care that these members are receiving. It is being modeled after the CHOICES program. Because it is just out of the development and recently into the implementation stage, the program is losing money for the organization, but in the future will hopefully be a very fruitful and beneficial program for the members and the

Most families that has kids will make sure their children are 100% taken care of, but there are 30% of families that has children, the father and mother both work long hours. (pg191) During the past 2 years there has been low income families that has or haven’t dealt with this situation in life but depending on how many children there are. Some main situation that families struggle with are freedom, strength and money. Despite, there were a decrease of children that bad health plus disabilities. (Objeda, 2003:pg85)

The fact that health care isn’t free for everyone causes problems. Wealthy people being able to afford health care and poor people not are the first and biggest problem that we have today. This is very unfair. Whether a person is rich or poor, they still need the proper treatment and care in order for

When medical insurance is provided to the poor people, they not only find regular checkups from doctors, but also feel better, are less depressed and are better to maintain financial stability, according to new, large-scale study that provides the first rigorously controlled assessment of the impact of Medicaid. A research was conducted and it says that “Being uninsured is incredibly stressful from a financial perspective, a psychological perspective, a physical perspective,” Dr. Baicker said. “It is a huge relief to people not to have to worry about it day in and day out.” Health insurance provides the opportunity to maintain health by providing a low cost way to attend the doctor visits and to buy affordable prescription drug if needed.

The one thing that surprised me was how much I learn from people come to our class. I like when real people come to our class and talk about the experience they had in that field. Even if I was not interested in the field they worked at. They were sharing what I wanted to hear. And how most of them were not doing their jobs for the money but for love. What I’m doing is for love and not for money. Finding people like me around this area was kind of awesome to me. Before this class I would read about people doing their job for love but I didn’t believe them because people are different behind the camera.