Respond to two of your colleagues’ postings by proposing another way in which the course content could be applied while working as an advanced human services professional practitioner.
Respond to two of your colleagues’ postings by proposing another way in which the course content could be applied while working as an advanced human services professional practitioner. Use specific examples to support your response.
Michelle
Learned About Social Change
Throughout the course I have learned about social change through our discussions and our community needs assessment plan. In my community needs assessment, I addressed the lack of affordable housing and homelessness. The community needs assessment was an excellent opportunity to determine who would help be social change agents and advocate for a particular group of individuals, in this case homeless, that are adversely affected by a social problem. Social change requires preventative methods, consultation, and advocacy. In this course I have learned critique the framing of social problems, explaining how systems thinking affects the framing of social problems, and the differences between systems approaches (Stroh, 2015).
Plan for Role in Human Services
My current role is in Child Welfare as a Child Welfare Case Manager Supervisor. I believe that I will always be in a human services practitioner role as I have been throughout my career. I am well versed in assessing client needs, creating plans to reach solutions to problems. In my current role, I advocate for children of child abuse to remain safe, have permanency and ensure their basic needs are being met. My future goal in the next 5 years post graduate school is to gain the skills necessary to be a Program Director in child welfare.
Prevention, Advocacy, and Consultation
Prevention is early intervention that is prior to any potential health effects occurring. The way I practice prevention in my current position is hard, most of the time I am working with things after the fact. In these cases, after a child has already been neglected or abused. We do, however, put support in the home prior to closing cases so that the prevention of any further harm can be mitigated. My current role is heavy on advocacy. Advocacy is working for a particular group of individuals that are adversely affected by social problems. I advocate daily for children. I advocate for their safety, permanency, and well-being. I typically use consultations for service providers in the field who are experts in the areas I need for a child in care. I may consult with parenting class providers, substance abuse providers, mental health providers etc. Consultation involves experts in a specific field who give qualified advice to individuals or organizations in their field of expertise (Stroh, 2015).
Reference
Stroh, D. P. (2015). Systems thinking for social change: A practical guide to solving complex
problems, avoiding unintended consequences, and achieving lasting results. Chelsea
Green Publishing.
SHELLON
Learned About Social Change
Social change is complicated and cannot be solved or addressed independently. These are a few critical factors about social change that has broadened my understanding: (1) building a foundation for change requires key stakeholders that affect and are affected by the issue; (2) Not everyone who set out to solve or address a social issue succeeds; (3) it is essential to engage individuals in developing their analysis because this will build ownership for the work and increase its accuracy of the work (powerful); (4) developing a shared understanding of why the current reality of the social problem exists is vital when addressing the challenge; (5) there are great benefits of systems thinking that can help stakeholders (Stroh, 2015); and much more.
Plan for Role in Human Services
Human service practitioners are committed to helping communities, and people reach their potential through empowering change and transformation (Maitoza, 2018). This is exactly what I have planned—empowering change and transforming lives in collaboration with other leaders from my native country, Guyana. The Organization my team and I are building will focus on community and social issues building relationships with citizens in rebuilding and restoring communities according to their needs.
Prevention, Advocacy, and Consultation
Stroh (2015) made this profound statement saying that we should “Cultivate systems thinking as a way of being, not just a way of thinking” (p.6). This is a challenge, but like many challenges, there are resources and tools to help, such as prevention, advocacy, and consultation. Prevention, advocacy, and consultation will be a way of being for my team and me as we systematically work together in addressing the world’s most complex social issues. In prevention, we will focus on the ethical and moral dilemmas within the organization and among the stakeholders. The Ethical Standards for Human Services Professionals (2015) preamble sums it up, stating that human service “… professionals promote and encourage the unique values and characteristics of human services”. In advocating, our team will assist in (1) pleading on behalf of others as needed; (2) making recommendations; and (3) supporting and or defending when needed (Alliance for Justice, n.d.). Lastly, in consultation, we will create and utilize innovative technology and hire organizations to help with communication and marketing.
References
Maitoza, R. (2018). The value or research-practice. Human Services Today, Summer 2018, 5-6.
National Organization for Human Services. (2015). Ethical standards for human services professionals. https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/ethical-standards-for-hs-professionals Links to an external site.
Stroh, D. P. (2015). Systems thinking for social change: A practical guide to solving complex problems, avoiding unintended consequences, and achieving lasting results. Chelsea Green Publishing.
