Social Work and the Helping Professions (E-5)

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the shoes of others." 
 
- Mahatma Gandhi

 
In the social work and helping professions there are people who nurture the growth of, or address the problems of a person's physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional or spiritual well-being, including through medicine, nursing, psychotherapy, psychological counseling, social work, education, life coaching and ministry. For instance, social workers help people overcome problems and make their lives better. They might work with people who are homeless, sick, or having family problems. Or they might help students who are having trouble at school, either with learning or with their social skills. However, such roles should not be limited to these professionals as Leo Tolstoy once said, "The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.”
 
People who choose careers in social work and the human services professions are strongly interested in helping people, and in being directly in service to them as individuals, families or groups. The careers of human service workers bring them in contact with the most vulnerable populations, where they seek to contribute to benefit the community and to improving the overall quality of life within the service populations in which they serve.

  The Human Services profession, which includes careers in areas such as social work, nonprofit mangement, healthcare, public education, social services for children and families, and more, is a profession which promotes the improvement of delivery for service systems in place. This is done by addressing not only the quality of direct services rendered, but also by seeking to further develop and enhance accessability, accountability and coordination among professionals and agencies in rendering effective, beneficial service delivery to their consituents.

In broad terms, the field of human services can be defined as uniquely approaching the objective of meeting human needs by using an interdisciplinary knowledge foundation, focusing on as well as maintaining a devoted cprevention along with remediation of societal problems of all types, and on remediation of societal problems.
ommitment to improving the overall quality of life for the benefit of the service populations they serve.

In this gallery, among others, we highlight the work of hospice leader Bernice Catherine Harper who contributed to improving conditions for AIDS patients in hospices in Africa.  Also featured here is Ann Morgan Vickery for her work in counseling clients regarding the impact of federal laws- mainly Medicare and Medicaid, and for her involvement in the enactment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit in 1982.

National Organization for Human Services (NOHS)

"What is Human Service?" National Organization for Human Services (NOHS). Web. Accessed on 29 Jul 2020 at <https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/what-is-human-services>.