CAPSTONE PROJECT- Must follow directions. Extremely important! See notes in red.

HOMELESSNESS 7

Homelessness

Christopher Malone

HHS 497

Instructor: Michelle Wilson

February 13, 2017

Example of human service careers aligned with the homeless society.

Social workers- are sometimes referred to as case managers. Their main duty is to connect with people to ensure the current situation does not get out of hand. They coordinate social services across multiple agencies and service providers like helping children living with HIV/AIDS, the homeless and orphaned kids. They are also responsible for acting as child rights activists in certain organizations.

Youth counsellors- they offer short-term counselling and case management services to youths in institutions that are set apart for the homeless or also in the streets where they sometimes indulge themselves in substance abuse due to lack of counselling, that’s why these counsellors are of very much assistance to the homeless societies. Youth counsellors assist in crisis intervention, psycho-education and also in the management of cases.

Professional responsibilities

The youth counsellors are responsible for providing counselling services, case management and also advocating for their clients, ensuring that there is a linkage between the youths and the community referral resources. Professional youth counsellors also provide necessary documents required in case of consultation or available programs for the youths by managing the relevant documents. The counsellor provides any necessary statistical information and any information that is necessary for any form of evaluation. They also ensure and provide ongoing outreach to young people.

Social workers, on the other hand, represent their clients by providing secondary consultation to the relevant lawyers and also ensure that there is a healthy relationship between the homeless and relevant agencies and services. The social workers may at times collaborate with other professionals in writing up assessments that meet specified standards and timescales. In cases such as child protection or mental disorder, they are involved in the multidisciplinary teams or any other meetings that the individuals may be involved in. They also ensure that they have the relevant documents available and ensure they are up to date as much as they represent their clients in the relevant meetings. They can also be present in court to give evidence pertaining a case related to their clients.

Knowledge, skills, and attributes.

For the social workers, one should demonstrate strong interpersonal skills such as being in a position to handle challenging or complex personalities. One should also possess high level of writing and communication skills and the ability to handle relevant official documents and keep them confidential, accurate and up to date. One should also be able to indulge in teamwork, be able to negotiate and mediate representing the service users. The individual should be resilient, have the ability to adapt to new work situations and also have good organizational skills as well as the general administrative skills.

Youth counsellor should have the knowledge on how to approach different personalities in different situations as well as be able create a relationship with the individuals. They should also be able to work in different environments be it community or non-traditional settings. They should possess a good knowledge of community resources and demonstrate responsiveness to cultural differences especially when dealing with the homeless youth.

Culturally competent health and human services elements necessary for service delivery

There are elements that can reflect extensively the ability of an organization to offer culturally competent health and human services. For an organization to offer its services to the latter, it must observe the following:

Organizations values- this refers to the organization's pros and cons with respect to how much cultural competence is important to them and its will to provide the best care.

Governance – the methods which are used to make policy and strategies that are to be used to deliver standard care.

Evaluation process – strategies used for both long and short-term operational competence planning and the methods in which they use to assess the organizations level of cultural competence.

Communication- the relationship between the organization and the people and also communication within the organization amongst the workers should promote cultural competence.

Staff development- is the organization ensuring whether the workers are delivering services as per expected observing the relevant skills for offering quality services.

Infrastructure- is the organization equipped with the necessary resources needed to deliver competent services.

Services- does the organization deliver their clinical, public health, and other health-related services in a culturally competent manner.

Barriers and limitations that these professionals may likely encounter in the provision of services related to homelessness.

There may be quite a number of barriers that professionals may encounter during their process of offering services to the homeless people. Individuals who require special attention such as the individuals with mental illness or individuals that are struggling with addictions, victims of violence require unique special support to help address their issue which some professionals may not have the expertise especially in the cases of the mentally ill homeless individuals. In cases where the homeless are fresh immigrants, it may be quite a challenge to offer effective communication due to the language barrier. Professionals may also encounter individuals that are not willing to move to the institutions set aside for the homeless due to previous unfriendly encounters in such places, therefore, it may be hard for them to convince them that it will be to their benefit this time. Some of the homeless individuals seem to be comfortable with their humble lifestyles and it becomes so hard to convince them to move into a shelter where they may get ample care and support. Outreach workers suggest that in such conditions they have no option than just to advise them to keep safe and wait until they have the will to change themselves. The much they can do is to be there for them when they are willing to have that change.

References

Friends of Youth. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://www.friendsofyouth.org/jobYFSHomelessCounselor.aspx

Identifying The Barriers. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://www.humanservices.alberta.ca/homelessness/14603.html

Mallen, S. (2015, February 09). Special challenges face those helping homeless people outside downtown. Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://globalnews.ca/news/1820463/special-challenges-face-those-helping-homeless people-outside-downtown/

(n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://learn.org/articles/What_are_Some_Career_Options_in_the_Field_of_Human_Services.html

Summary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2017, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/social-workers.htm