¶ … Nature Purpose Human Services Practice Functions and History of Human Service Professionals

On a fundamental level, the overarching goal of human service workers is to serve their clients. It is widely acknowledged within this profession that there are a variety of client types who have a plethora of issues that human workers assist in solving. To that end, the primary goal of human service employees has been succinctly summarized within the preamble of the "Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals," which unequivocally states that "Human services is a profession developing in response to and in anticipation of the direction of human needs and human problems in the late twentieth century" (No author, no date, p. 81). Therefore, the goal of this profession is to ideally solve problems that plague individuals and groups of people in the latter stages of the twentieth century and in the beginning stages of the 21st century. Although there are frequently situations (as virtually any human services professional can attest to) in which it may not be possible to outright correct a particular issue so that it is no longer a problem, human services aims to at least mitigate the severity of such situations to make them more agreeable to the participants who are involved in them.

In order to fulfill these goals, there are a number of job functions that human service professionals may have to take on to ensure the largest measure of satisfaction within their clients as possible. Central to these roles is the facilitation of a spirit of community in which clients -- which encompass a wide range of people from organizations to individuals and their respective families -- can both access and gain results from in order to lead happier, more productive lives. Depending on the nature of the needs of specific clients, human service professionals may choose to specialize in one of the following areas or take on the job functions of a number...

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There is actually a fairly lengthy history of human services needs and organizations that have sought to meet these needs, which extends well beyond the latter part of the 20th century. Although this concept may have originally descended as part of feudalism in which one's lord had an obligation to assist his or her tenants in various regions of their lives and livelihoods, the history of this line of work within the United States most likely began in earnest during the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt sought to enact a number of specific legislature that could ameliorate the condition of the multitudes of destitute people suffering. While there had been many federally designated programs to aid people with issues of poverty that manifested themselves in lack of clothing, poor health and even worse nourishment, one of the specific measures with which human services would be based upon is the Federal Social Security Act of 1933, as the following quotation sufficiently demonstrates.

The Social Security Act - a sweeping federal law - is best known for creating a national system of old age insurance financed by taxes on wages and payrolls. But it did much, much more: it created a federal/state system of unemployment insurance, provided federal matching funds to states for the care of mothers and children, and created federal public health services (Washington State, no date).

What is most noteworthy about this quotation is the role in which the federal government played in the creation of health services, which eventually spawned human services. It is noteworthy to mention that a number of the roles that human…