Ethical Practice: Roles, Skills & Diversity in Human Services.

This essay delves into the multifaceted world of human service organisations, focusing on the roles, skills, and ethical considerations essential for professionals in this field. It identifies a human service organisation and discusses the specific roles of human service professionals, highlighting the knowledge and skills required for effective practice. A significant portion of the essay is dedicated to understanding the importance of cultural competence, identifying the knowledge, values, and skills that support working with culturally diverse clientele. It also addresses potential ethical dilemmas that may arise when serving diverse populations and emphasizes the application of professional codes of ethics in real-world scenarios. The essay underscores the necessity for ongoing training and development to ensure that human service professionals are well-equipped to navigate the complexities of their roles and maintain the highest ethical standards while providing culturally sensitive and effective services. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar assignments and access valuable study tools.

Running head: HUMAN SERVICE AND ORGANISATION
Human Service and Organisation
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction to the concept of human service:................................................................................2
Human services professionals:........................................................................................................2
Conditions of work:.........................................................................................................................4
UNICEF Australia services:............................................................................................................4
Ethical dilemma of social diversity:................................................................................................6
Training and development of professionals in human services:......................................................7
Values in the human services:.........................................................................................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References and Bibliography:........................................................................................................10

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Introduction to the concept of human service:
The concept of human services is broadly defined and it helps in the unique approaching
of the aim of fulfilling human requirements by an “interdisciplinary knowledge base”. There also
needs to be a focus on the prevention and remediation of problems as well and maintenance of
commitment for the improvement of overall quality of service populations. The human services
profession helps in the promotion of improved services. It also helps in the “improvement of
accessibility, accountability and coordination among professionals and agencies in the delivery
of service”.
The field of “”human services is broadly defined and it helps in “uniquely approaching
the aim of meeting human needs by means of a disciplinary knowledge base and it focuses on the
prevention as well as the remediation of problems and maintenance of commitment for
improving the overall quality of life for service populations”. The human services profession
promotes enhanced delivery and service systems by “addressing the quality of direct services and
also seeking to improve accessibility, accountability and coordination amongst professionals and
also agencies in the delivery of service”.
Human services professionals:
In this connection it can be said that the people who have professional and other jobs in
such diverse settings in cases such as group homes, halfway houses, correctional, intellectual
disabilities, community mental health centres, family, child, youth service agencies, programs
and so on are known as human service professionals. The main purpose of the human services
professional is to help in serving the clients and the job duties and titles also vary by a great deal.

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The main aim of the “human service professional” is in helping individuals and
communities to perform as effectively as they can in all crucial domains of living. There is a very
strong desire to help others in all those people who want to take part in human service activities.
The helping attitude is a very strong desire for a job. Individuals who show a certain amount of
patience, understanding and caring in their dealings with others are very much valued by their
employers. Such people are valued in the human service organisations due to their ability to help
people. The chief personal traits include “communication skills, a strong sense of responsibility
and the capability to manage time effectively”.
The following help in the description of the “generic knowledge, skills and attitudes”
which are required in the human services work. The training and preparation for an individual
worker which within a particular framework changes due to the setting of the work, the specific
client population served and the level in which the organisations work.
There is the need to understand the nature of the human systems, individual groups,
organisations, communities or societies which also comprise of their major interactions. All
workers need to have an “understanding of major models of causation which are concerned with
the promotion of healthy functioning and also concerned with the treatment rehabilitation. There
needs to be medically oriented, socially oriented psychologically behavioural oriented and
educationally oriented models”.
There needs to be the identification of skills in the planning, implementation and
evaluation of interventions. The worker can design a particular plan of action for an identified
problem and the implementation of the plan in a systematic way. There is also the requirement
of an “understanding of the problem analysis, decision analysis and design of work plans”. There

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also needs to be a proper utilization of the generic skills which can be utilized in the social
systems and for use in individual clients or organisations (Thomas & Rothman, 2013).
There needs to be a consistency of behaviour of the professionals which help in selection
of interventions which are congruent with the values of a person, clients and employing the
organisation and the human service profession. This also requires awareness of a person’s own
value orientation and an understanding of organisational values as expressed in the goal
statement of the organisation, the human service ethics and appreciation of the values of the
clients values, life style and goals (Paxton et al., 2015).
Conditions of work:
The operational conditions of service professionals might vary. The human service
workers in the social service workplaces usually spend a certain division of the time in the office
and the rest in the field. There are chances of compensatory work as well. Human service
professionals work in the residential settings at different shift times. Often professionals who are
taken in newer settings might require supervision in case their responsibilities vary or they are
assigned tasks which take a major amount of their time. The employed human service workers
need to balance their time effectively so that they can arrange for their work management and
also the time which they devote to their work and to the human service activities (Gray et al.,
2015).
Mission Australia:
There are nationwide integrated services in the aspect of Mission Australia which are
useful in helping people find safe and affordable housing, giving support to the disadvantaged

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children and families, empower the people who are young but troubled, assist people with mental
illness and disability along with several other factors. Therefore it is needed that early
intervention and prevention is at the heart of work. Mission Australia has a very long history of
working with governments at all levels. This is done being a service provider as well as an
organisation which is capable of influencing. The majority of services which are delivered by the
company are funded by the government. This is done by means of a transparent tender process
which is to secure contracts for a determined period. Other services are reliant on the generosity
of the partners and several Australians who are capable of providing support.
It is believed by Mission Australia that every person needs to have access to safe and
secure amount of housing facilities. It is a crucial part of the maintenance of good health and also
being part of a community. The shortage of affordable housing and high rents implies that the
people are increasingly vulnerable to the homelessness. The organisation provides services to the
children and families who need it, youth services, provision to disability inclusion and support
and also training regarding the employment skills and training. The alcohol, drugs and
dependency support is also provided to the professionals.
Ethical dilemma of social diversity:
In the present world there is an increasing diversity of demand to understand what
services need to be provided to the population and there are also requirements of care and ability
to meet the requirements of those individuals who are being served. Working with culturally
diverse clients brings certain challenges. Language is central to a person’s ability. The
experiences and perceptions of issues in such diversity is necessary to be understood in human
services (Monette, Sullivan & DeJong, 2013).

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The Code of Ethics emphasizes on the fact that human service professionals and
counsellors are ethically obligated to work at understanding the diverse and culturally varied
backgrounds of the client whom they serve. The ethics of multicultural counselling need to be
need to be mentioned to the professionals so that they are maintained at all costs. There needs to
be a proper awareness among the people regarding the aims of the cultural competence and the
exiting varieties of culture and bias. There cannot be any sort of engagement in discrimination
and there also needs to be an understanding of the diverse backgrounds from which students
come from (Kadushin, 2012).
Human services need a proper amount of time and patience. Human service professionals
need to seek cultural competence, pursue awareness of their own, do not engage in
discrimination of any sort, understand and respect clients and their attitudes and values regarding
different forms of human services among others. The techniques which need to be applied have
to be selected in advance based on proper study. Appropriate references need to be made with
regard to the flexibility with which the different procedures are to be applied (Adamson, 2012).
Conflicts might arise between the existing code of ethics and laws, policies in the
workplace, cultural practices and even personal beliefs. Ethical decision making procedures need
to be incorporated in order to ensure that careful choices are being made. Despite the fact that
ethical codes are not legal documents, there are chances that these documents can be utilized
later to address concerns related to the behaviour of human service professionals.
The code of ethics is also conserved with the protection of the client records at all times.
The client information which is shared with other individuals in written or electronic form needs
to have prior permission preferably written consent from the clients themselves. In case of

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professional supervision, or prior knowledge about the requirement of the client, such
confidential information might be shared (McGaw, 2014).
Training and development of professionals in human services:
In case of Mission Australia, the professionals are those who seek training, need to have
understanding, learning and administration in order to ensure their efficacy is operational in the
human services. The professionals from different genres are selected and thereafter they are
given suitable training to ensure that they understand their responsibilities, work duties and can
perform them effectively. “Human service professionals” also promote the progressing
development of their vocation. There are different well established training programmes which
are available in order to support health as well as human service so that the way in which the
professionals deal with children are understood properly. There are suicide prevention trainings
available so that the professionals can deal with the people who are thinking of committing
suicide.
There are several people who suffer from mental health issues and therefore suffer from
these issues in their lives. Mental illness is capable of impacting the psychological, physical,
emotional and spiritual well being of a person. The impact of mental illness hampers the ability
of an individual to function properly. Therefore at Mission Australia, support is delivered from a
recovery led view which is thought to be the most effective approach for people who have a
mental illness.

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Values in the human services:
Human service professionals need to maintain the ethics of their profession at all times.
The most importance of the standards are those in the ethical and professional decision-making.
The crucial principles of “human services” involve “respecting the dignity and welfare of all
people, promotion of self-determination, honouring cultural diversity, advocating for social
justice and ultimately acting with integrity, honestly, genuineness and objectivity”. Human
service professionals get the consent which they require from higher authorities to provide the
required services to their clients at the time of the relationship which is established between
them. There is the information which is provided to the clients on the fact that they might
withdraw their consent of services at all times.
It is the duty of the human service professionals to ensure that they “protect the client’s
right to privacy and confidentiality” except in cases when it has the potential to cause serious
harm to the clients or other people. In case of the services to the children, their welfare are to be
maintained at all times. In case there might be problems which may rise in case of the clients
might lead to the impairment of their professional judgements. It is therefore not at all feasible to
avoid any sort of dual or multiple relationships so that the professional relationships are restored
and maintained.
Conclusion:
There are several free community services which are provided by Mission Australia and
these are applicable in even the remote most parts of Australia. It is the right of every person to
have a healthy and happy life. The job of Mission Australia is to asst families in the provision of
security, care and support which is crucial for the development of a person. The community

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services also work with families in order to help them deal with the specific challenges which
can cause harm to people and long term unemployment. Therefore the people get the best of
services possible due to the community possible.

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References and Bibliography:
Adamson, P. (2012). Measuring child poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world's
rich countries (No. inreca660).
Beausang, J., Farrell, A., & Walsh, K. (2012). Young people whose parents are separated or
divorced: A case for researching their experiences at the intersection of home and
school. Educational Research, 54(3), 343-356.
Gray, M., Dean, M., Agllias, K., Howard, A., & Schubert, L. (2015). Perspectives on
neoliberalism for human service professionals. Social Service Review, 89(2), 368-392.
Kadushin, G. (2012). The social work interview: A guide for human service professionals.
Columbia University Press.
Mackelprang, R. W., & Salsgiver, R. (2016). Disability: A diversity model approach in human
service practice. Oxford University Press.
McGaw, B. (2014). Cross-curriculum priorities are options, not orders. Newsmonth, 34(2), 18.
Monette, D. R., Sullivan, T. J., & DeJong, C. R. (2013). Applied social research: A tool for the
human services. Cengage Learning.
Paxton, G., Tosif, S., Graham, H., Smith, A., Reveley, C., Standish, J., ... & Marais, B. (2015).
Perspective:‘The forgotten children: national inquiry into children in immigration
detention (2014)’. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(4), 365-368.
Thomas, E. J., & Rothman, J. (2013). Intervention research: Design and development for human
service. Routledge.

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