The Importance Of A Human Service Professional

The podcast outlines the importance of good connections with the judicial system. When creating those relationships, it allows case workers to advocate for a client involved in minor cases by providing outside help. Providing those services of mental health rather than imprisoning them could help depopulated jails. These measures help save state and local governments thousands of dollars but also make their community safer.

More often than not, if John Q. Public is asked the purpose or goals of our American correctional system the reply is incapacitation, retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation. However, what we are really asking for our corrections system to do is to secure and supervise the individuals cast out of society through the judicial process regardless of their individual needs and abilities. The purpose of this particular study is focused on the management of special needs inmates and the burdens incurred at various levels. For this study, special needs populations are defined as prisoners who exhibit unique physical, mental, social, and programmatic needs that distinguish them from other prisoners and to whom jail and prison management and staff have to respond in nontraditional and innovative ways (Schmalleger & Smykla 2013). The special needs populations included individuals suffering from mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and dependency, the elderly, sufferers of chronic and communicable diseases, and physical disabilities.

The individual that I chose to interview, we will refer to her as Ms. M, is a long-standing member of the counseling community and a personal and professional mentor of mine. Currently she works for the state in the social services field, though she still uses her dependency counselor skills, it is not to the same extent that she once did. However, because of her qualifications she is still able to conduct assessments, offer counseling, and help clients recognize and navigate potential addiction pitfalls. For this interview we spoke about her initial entry into the field and her time as a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) in the women’s prison system.

The section in chapter I that caught my attention was pertaining to Forming Teams and Partnership to Provide Services. This area in the book stresses how vital it is working with other agencies or professionals to assist clients with receiving services. (An Introduction to Human Services, Woodside & McClam) The concept of connecting people to services is relevant in my line of work as a probation officer. When individuals are place on supervised probation, they are required by the courts to complete special conditions prior to the expiration of the case. Upon the initial appointment, the client is directed to have a treatment evaluation or an assessment completed and at that time they are given

When I entered this class I did not know anything about ethics or what it meant. I learned so many thing that it would take to long to list them all. I do understand the Ethics Code and the Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals. That is one think I will have to always have with me and if I need to have a cheat sheet to look back on as I move forward. My biggest challenge was my grammar as I need to continue to work on this through out my life. I learned this was a problem for me through my assignments but am working on it. I hope some day it will come natural for me. This class was my biggest challenge as in terms of a grade. Because of this I learned that I have things to work on to improve myself moving forward.

In our facility, help groups will be established with the prisoners. Our duty is to try to rehabilitate the prisoners in the system if they want to be rehabilitated. We will have a group of prisoners in a guarded room in the facility, with counselors who can speak to them in a group. The prisoners at some point may be able to help one another understand what their issues have been in the past that helped to lead them to the situation that caused them to be sentenced to this facility. Our goal as a helping group for the inmate is to get them to understand if they are ever eligible for parole what they can do in life to avoid the situation that put them in prison in the first place or ways to think quickly to a less dangerous situation where they will be able to make a better choice in life.

Human service professional’s main focus is to successfully deliver and to meet human needs. As a professional for human services, an individual must have knowledge and commitment to delivering the highest quality level of services to their client or client’s issues to improve their client’s quality of living. Human services have several of roles depending on their professions. Some roles may include learning to build relationships with clients, finding the right resources for clients, additional training and technology skills. In addition to several of roles, as a human service professional, it is very important to practice the ethical responsibilities that come within human services when dealing with clients on daily basis.

Burger, W.R. (2011). Human services in contemporary America (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.

A human service professional, plays a major role in society, working side-by-side with various professionals, and assumes a wide range of roles to assist individuals, groups, organizations and communities. Although human service professionals do not necessarily do in depth and psychotherapy, they are well-equipped to facilitate client change and growth typically by working directly or indirectly with clients around concrete tasks, objectives, and goals. A counselor, broker, advocate, case manager, community planner and behavior specialists are just few of the roles of a human service professional. (Lincoln University)

Recent news stories about Washington State’s Department of Correction letting out thousands of inmates early due to a computer glitch sparked my interest in our judicial and prison systems. I had heard of a study called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion or LEAD that looked at providing low level offenders with social services instead of jail time. Instead of charging, convicting and jailing these drug abusers and prostitutes, they would be helped by social workers that would guide them toward a path to a better life. This topic is important because it effects everyone, from the taxes people spend on imprisoning low level offenders, to the idea that it may not be effective in stopping their criminal path.

In this discussion, I will first provide a description of two evidence-based research articles. I will explain how each article relates to professional collaboration. Secondly, I will compare the extent in which the research articles apply to the professional’s collaboration of human services professionals in my area of interest. Lastly, I will explain how human services professionals may use research articles to inform practice.

Overall, the reintegration of prisoners has been a long standing problem in our justice system that has simply not been properly addressed. This issue poses a problem to the prison system, prisoners, and taxpayers in that the failure to rehabilitate inmate becomes a burden on all three. In order to combat this problem, we need to implement a national prisoner reintegration program that focuses heavily on equipping released prisoners with vocational assistance and support systems that are geared towards each individual’s success in transitioning back into society. From a feasibility standpoint, the costs of such program would be mild in comparison to its overwhelming benefits. For the most part, funding would come from reallocating money from the largely ineffective corrections department and would have little to no cost to the taxpayer and the resources such a labor can for be extended from preexisting programs already in place. Overall this issue influences every member of our society in one way, shape, or form, as citizens and taxpayers we need to advocate for this reintegration program because it ultimately reduces the societal burdens caused by recidivism

The prison population in the United States has been growing steadily for more over 30 years, a great portion of this population are returned offenders. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports, each year more than 650,000 offenders are released into communities with at least 5 million of the ex-offenders being under some form of community-based supervision (James, 2010). In an attempt to curtail the rate of recidivism, the Bureau of Prison contracts with Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) to assist inmates approaching release. RRC’s provide safe, structured, supervised environment, as well as employment counseling, job placement and financial management assistance (Prisons, 2017).

When trying to help one better their life it is easy to hand them money, material items, or opportunities that will, undoubtedly, offer many benefits to their life. However, after the money, the items, or the opportunities run out it is not certain that they will be able to acquire these things on their own. Social change organizations have worked to develop plans that will, instead of rescuing, empower and encourage others to actively take part in the betterment of their lives. Homeboy Industries have found ways to maximize the participation and empowerment of incarcerated people.

The Human Service Professionals are a group of individuals whose job is specifically to serve the society, educate them and work for the societal welfare at large. In the twentieth century, organizational ethics have gained immense importance in the corporate world. The need to adhere to ethical standards is even greater for the human service professionals and those who educate them. This is because any deviance from ethical standards can question the integrity of human service professions and can raise question on the standards of social welfare. This is unhealthy for the trust relationships of the society over human service individuals.