Human Services and Education Assessment

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Human Service Professional Assessment

As a formal discipline, human services is a term which has emerged within the past several years. However, the various functions and services involved with this term have been practiced for a significant amount of time. It was in initially understanding the social efforts required of human services that I first became attracted to this profession. In my esteem, human services is the most viable means of addressing the plenitude of social issues of this day at a granular level which produces the greatest impact in the world today. My incipient understanding of this concept gravitated me towards this field, and fuels my most ardent beliefs about the various strengths, weaknesses, and ways in which I can improve my deficiencies. An intrinsic cognizance of the virtues associated with the strength of this profession, coupled with an awareness of traits associated with its weakness and the means to improve them illustrates I possess the wherewithal to substantially assist people in this field.

The core strengths of a competent human services professional inevitably involve empathy, courage, ethics and responsibility, and a respect for diversity. In many ways, one can successfully propound the notion that empathy is the most influential of these strengths. This characteristic practically single-handedly summarizes the most vital element of this profession as a whole, simply due to the nature of the work required. Human services professionals must know how to perceive the feelings of their clients and, to a large extent, share them to truly produce any sort of utility for these people. Empathy is a forerunner to the virtue of compassion; both of these are needed to provide exceptional service to those who require human services. Empathy, then, is pivotal to the sort of understanding required to actually create action which transcends bureaucracy and truly abets those desirous of human services.

Courage is a strength in the human services profession because it is required for making positive changes. Making any sort of positive change takes courage. It is too easy to let things continue without improving them, or to simply embrace negativity and change in that regard. However, human service professionals are tasked with helping clients better their lives. Oftentimes, this requires some sort of intervention which produces a positive change. Human service professionals, then, must be courageous in their efforts to help their clients as well as to inspire those clients to have the same courage while trying to change their lives for the better.

Being both ethical and responsible is a strength for human services professionals because it empowers them to do their jobs effectively. Such professionals are trusted to engage in ethical behavior which assists their clients and prioritizes such assistance above most other concerns -- certainly above those related to the professional. Moreover, acting ethically requires responsibility. In fact, one of the primary responsibilities of human services professionals is to engage in ethical behavior. Both of these characteristics are strengths because they help ensure human services personnel are doing their jobs in the best way possible. They are also in accordance with the degree of professional competency which characterizes this field in general.

Respect for diversity is definitely a strength in the human service profession because of the wide range of clients professionals in this field are abound to encounter. Furthermore, these clients are sure to have an assortment of needs and specialized circumstances which require professionals in this field to deal with a variety of circumstances. Respecting diversity, then, is a way for those in this profession to both anticipate and meet the challenges associated with working with such a diverse range of clientele. Respecting diversity is also a fundamental strength to this profession because it illustrates to clientele that one recognizes their individuality, which is an essential way for getting them to open up and trust the human services professional.

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Flexibility is a weakness in the human service profession because all clients deserve equal treatment. It is inequitable to do certain tasks or to issue certain services for some clients and not for others. Consistency and regularity are the hallmarks of strength in this profession. Flexibility can create situations in which one is giving preferential treatment to certain clients, or to certain types of clients. Such behavior flouts parity and results in situations in which some clients -- who require human services just as much as others -- are not able to reap the benefits from those services. Ideally, human services personnel should effect the same treatment for all clients.

My continuing education is a weakness in the human services profession because it is not complete. In fact, in all honesty I have been somewhat remiss in my continuing education endeavors. It truly does not take a lot for one to enroll in either in-person or online seminars, let alone formal education classes in some specialized area of this discipline. However, I have not done so as much as I need to, nor as much as I aim to do so. My dearth of appropriate continuing education puts me in a precarious position where I am not abreast of recent developments in this field. Learning of these developments could aid my in increasing my productivity and efficiency.

My patience is a weakness in the human service profession because it warrants some improvement. Patience is one of those attributes of which one can never have a surplus. There are times when I find myself losing patience, or even acting in an impatient way towards my clients. The truth is this profession requires copious amounts of patience. Clients have extremely stressful situations they are dealing with, which impacts the level of stress for those working with them. Demonstrating patience is the one sure way of providing competent service in such an environment, and of benefiting the clients as well. It seems patience is an acquired virtue, and one which necessitates practice.

My organization skills are a weakness in much the same way my patience is a weakness in this profession; one can simply never have enough organization or patience. One of the significant challenges for my organization skills is the highly disparate nature of the needs of clients. It is not uncommon for me to have to do new things each day for either new or the same clients. Organization skills can provide a solid foundation for the sort of versatility this position requires. I have had experiences in which I was not able to locate information due to a lack of organization. These experiences result in a less than stellar time management on my part.

There are a few ways I can improve my weakness regarding flexibility in the human services profession. Firstly I can make more of an effort to follow organization policy regarding dealing with clients. This policy is explicit and is equitable to everyone involved in it -- especially with the way professionals treat clients. Also, I have a mentor who has worked in this field for a couple of decades. She can help to provide some much needed advice for how to set my own personal standards which are applicable to all the clients I deal with, so there is no need for flexibility. Instead, I will seek to adopt uniform standards applicable for all my clients.

The principal way I can improve on my weakness in….....

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