This paper examines the human services profession through a multidisciplinary lens, focusing on a reflective review of a practitioner interview with Karen Cowan, director of Restored Hope group homes. Drawing on Kincaid's (2009) four essential components of human services, the paper explores how group home facilities serve at-risk youth, the daily responsibilities of agency directors, funding challenges facing nonprofit providers, and the sources of job satisfaction unique to helping professions. The paper also considers the range of professionals who collaborate to serve vulnerable child populations and reflects on the author's own career aspirations within human services administration.
The human services profession combines many disciplines to create an integrated and specialized field in which individuals can apply a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving. Human services as a discipline is multifaceted and designed to address chronic problems and issues faced by individuals, families, and society. Kincaid (2009) posits that there are four essential components of human services: an integrated interdisciplinary knowledge base, client self-determination, processes to facilitate change, and systemic change at all levels of society. The binding feature of the profession is the triangulation effect produced by these components working together.
Within the umbrella of human services, there are professions that address the needs of a diverse clientele. Those needs range from counseling to placement in, and the provision of, foster care, and from material to emotional support (Kincaid, 2009). Crucial to satisfying client needs is the encouragement and empowerment of the individual. Whatever the needs of the client, the practitioner works to help the client become self-deterministic. The greatest need of any client is to have genuine power over their own life.
Three videos were viewed for this assignment: one featuring Rachael Henderson, a family therapist specializing in crisis counseling; one featuring Beth Harmon, who has worked with the Department of Social Services for eight years and has acted decisively to protect abused children; and a final video featuring Karen Cowan from human services. The video chosen for review was the Karen Cowan human services piece.
Karen Cowan initially spent several years with the Department of Social Services. She became disenchanted with the prospect of placing children in homes she considered unsuitable and decided to open her own agency. She is now the administrator and director of Restored Hope group homes. The homes she manages are small: one is a three-bed facility, and the other has four beds. The homes accommodate children between the ages of 8 and 18, and the principal occupants at present are boys.
The boys are placed in the home because their home environments may be unsafe and they are acting out inappropriately toward other children. The home serving older teenage children functions as a preparatory location. After a crisis, the boys may return home or be adopted. The younger children at the second home are prepared mainly for adoption. Cowan's decision to leave a government agency and create her own facility reflects a broader tension within child protective services between systemic constraints and the individualized care that vulnerable youth require.
The daily responsibilities of the director involve managing staff and ensuring that the home runs smoothly. Within the facility itself, the children are encouraged to have a "normal life." They wake up, have breakfast, go to school, complete homework, and then engage in communal entertainment activities or reading. Every effort is made to ensure that the lives of the children closely mirror those of an average child.
In addition to overseeing daily routines, the director is responsible for identifying funding and ensuring that the needs of the facility are met. A number of other helping professionals — including social workers, foster care specialists, and mental health professionals — can also address the population served by this agency. The children come from difficult situations that often involve multiple forms of abuse. Immediate placement in a safe environment, along with counseling, is a priority. The children frequently have challenges with authority and trust, and a high propensity to harm themselves or others. Consequently, there is also a need to establish structure and order in their lives.
I am personally interested in serving as a director of such a facility. From that position, I believe it is possible to initiate changes in policy and practice that can immediately benefit children. Ultimately, I hope to introduce new practices to human services that can greatly improve the efficiency and smooth functioning of facilities like Restored Hope.
"Government and corporate funding constraints"
"Sources of meaning in human services work"
The human factor of human services provides the reason for the existence of these facilities. Unlike corporations that measure success in the bottom line of financial profit, the human services professional finds deep, lasting satisfaction from rescuing and redeeming lives. Satisfaction comes to the professional one life at a time. The field demands resilience in the face of chronic underfunding and overwhelming need, but the transformative impact on individual clients makes it a uniquely meaningful vocation.
You’re 63% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.