Human Services Careers involve a large range of jobs that vary in education requirements, job responsibilities, population served, and salary range. 5 human services career options will be discussed. This discussion will show the wide range of positions that are available within the human services field. Basic to specific qualifications, job responsibilities, and hiring outlook will be included to detail each career option.
Careers in Human Services
Career options in the human services field are many and widely vary not only in education requirement, job duties and salary, but also in the populations that are provided with services. In discussing 5 different careers that cross areas and population will demonstrate how varied this career field is, along with how narrow of a focus that these careers can have.
Substance Abuse Counselor
My interest in substance abuse and the recovery process was the reason for choosing this role in the human services field. I would be interested in working with clients with substance abuse, because I have a friend who is an alcoholic and drug addict. My friend and I have talked about her addictions and the struggles she has gone through trying to get clean and maintain her recovery. The challenges of choosing this area of human services would be the fact that a lot of client will relapse and have to start over again. If a person is ordered by a judge to attend substance abuse counseling, the client most likely is not ready or willing to actively participate in the recovery process. These can be the frustrating, but the success of the client in achieving sobriety and success in the other areas of their lives are the rewards of hard work on the side of the client and the ability of the counselor to ...
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HumanServicesEdu.org (n.d.). Overview to Becoming a Counselor. Retrieved February 22, 2014, from http://www.humanservicesedu.org/counseling.html
HumanServicesEdu.org (n.d.). Probation Officers Occupation and Education Overview. Retrieved February 22, 2014, from http://www.humanservicesedu.org/probation-officer.html
HumanServicesEdu.org (n.d.). Substance Abuse Counselor | Human Services Education. Retrieved February 22, 2014, from http://www.humanservicesedu.org/substance-abuse-counselor.html
McClam, T., &Woodside, M. (2011). The Client. In An introduction to human services (7th ed., pp. 170-172 & 201-207). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.
My Majors (2014). Careers for Child Advocate. Job information. Retrieved February 22, 2014, from http://www.mymajors.com/careers-and-jobs/child-advocate
Working as a Human Service Professional can be a challenging pursuit. The attitude of the human service worker can sometimes be a problem itself. Many
Similar to other professions and/or social issues, there has been tremendous growth within the history of the human services field. There are different specializations that fall under this professional spectrum such as mental health, social work, and crisis intervention as well as several others. Dating back to the 1700s, individuals have been providing services and resources to those in need. Although each era may has placed different emphasis on specific areas, the general operation still remained the same. For example, the age of systems era and the professionalization of human services era focused on different issues but yet shared collective objectives.
My listening skills will be an advantage for the client because I will be able to customize and individualize each treatment plan to fit the client’s needs to get them the most beneficial treatment possible. I've seen clinicians treat clients like cattle, talk to 20 different people with 20 different problems and diagnoses and write the same treatment plan for every single one of them. I will treat every client like they are my main priority. It’s also important for addiction counselors and mental health practitioners to remember that in many cases, people receive treatment for one disorder while the other disorder remains untreated. You hear of many cases where someone goes in to get help for their depression or bipolar disorder, and once MH practitioner’s find out they have a Substance Use Disorder they totally forget about the mental health aspect and transfer the client to the substance abuse counselor.
Chemical Dependency counselors have quite a few ethical dilemmas to deal with. Therapists that are in recovery may confront some even more complex dilemmas, opposed to those who are not. There is a high percentage of addiction counselors that are in recovery. In fact, 55% of 36,000 members of the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Counselors (NAADAC) are recovering alcoholics and 21% are recovering from some other chemical dependency. This brings up two sides to counselors in recovery. "There is something about the personal experience that assists counselors to being especially attentive to the needs of the recovering client." On the other hand, counselors bringing personal experience with them are likely to raise personal/professional boundary violations. Two specific dilemmas that recovering counselors may run into are dual relationships and self-disclosure.
“Occupation Profile.” Careeronstop Pathways to Career Success. U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training administration, n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
The Human Service field can be challenging to people at times and rewarding as well in other moments of one’s career. What is the Human Services field exactly? According to the National Organization for Human Services they report that “the field of Human Services is broadly defined, uniquely approaching the goal of meeting human needs through an interdisciplinary knowledge base, focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall quality of life of service populations” (NOHS, 2009).
The purpose of this interview is to explore human service professional in their work environment, and observe human service professional in their particular settings, what type of education is required for their position of choice. The human services profession has a variety of populations that they serve; this is a wide array of people. Human service professionals serve populations such as, high-risk mothers who may have shortfalls in education, psychosocial, nutritional, and little or no transportation. Another is the homeless population, lack housing due to being unable to afford, or maintain safe and adequate housing. The elderly is a population that is increasing, there needs range from chronic illness, lack of or little education, mentally, financial, loss of independence, and stereotyping. They serve those diagnose with a chronic illnesses, such illnesses may be diagnoses of , high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, there is also the chronic mentally ill who are consider high risk, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD(attention deficit hyperactive disorder). These are just a few of the services that a human service professional may work with.
It’s undoubtedly complex and can take someone strong and passionate, with all their good intentions, and completely break them down and burn them out. Entering this field requires a Human Services worker to not only be prepared for all that it includes, but to be fully educated in the accepted and most effective best practices to produce superior results for the child and their family. This paper will discuss the career choice of a Child Protective Service (CPS) worker and the standard best practices implemented in this
The field of human service consists of particular goals and objectives of human needs, and it promotes improved services delivery systems by addressing the overall quality of life of service population. Similarly, Human service delivery system focuses on how human service professionals approach their work. While encompassing a broad range of idea, Human service is a unique useful and purposeful discipline aiming to assist human needs and communities through an interdisciplinary knowledge base. Human services professional is a generic term for people who hold professional and paraprofessional jobs, and it concerns to improve the quality of life of people, accessibility, accountability, and co-ordination among professional and agencies in service
Liddle, H A., Rowe, C L., Dakof, G A., Henderson, C E., Greenbaum, P E.; (Feb, 2009). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology; Vol 77(1); 12-25. Doi: 10.1177/0306624X10366960
I have wanted to be a counselor since my freshmen year of high school and in the counseling field there are many specialties that I can focus on. I am fairly certain that I want to specialize in helping people with substance abuse and their families. I have always focused my studies, interests, and work on things that will help me in this field and I have a lot of qualities that help to enhance me in my eventual career. There are difficulties when I get to practice also like what people perceive as correct counseling style, challenges with my gender and race, and finally creating my own counseling style and plans.
Roger, Patricia R, and Stone Gerlad Counseling vs Clinical" Society of counseling psychology, n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2014.
I have chosen social work as a profession because of my passion to help others. I want to make a difference in someone’s life and help them through the problems they are having. Whether the client needs counseling, guidance, or advocacy I want to be the person to help them. My drive for helping others and motivation to change social policies for the better is why I have chosen social work as my future profession.
Explore the personal values and attributes that are necessary to be successful in human services.
There are several professional spectrums that can be categorized under the human services career field. For example, legal professionals can be very vital to the human services profession whether it is for inter-professional collaborations or for professional legal counseling. This can be found true, when taking a look at an organizational chart for any state agency’s Department of Human Resources (DHR) and/or Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) organization chart. The ultimate goal of these professions is to serve their clients while promoting and enhancing diversity within our communities as well as eliminating all forms of discriminations. On the other hand, for each professional spectrum that falls under the human services umbrella, there are professional associations.