A number of barriers come with every profession and professions dealing with human services have to respond to issues with planning, empowerment, services and funding. In most organizations, services and funding are placed the core if changes need to be made. Empowerment is among the last in the matters that organizations prioritize. Funding is the most vital task of human services as a profession so the matters that are influential to financing human services must be given the most consideration. There is a separate arrangement of services and programs that a human service organization encompasses in order to help the inhabitants who are at risk as well as those living in poverty. The services consist of vocational training, foster care, food stamps, homeless assistance and childcare among others. In spite of having various barriers in services, funding, empowerment and planning, technology has nevertheless given a number of resources to manage these barriers.
The purpose of technology has been to boost the performance of human services. Technology has helped in overcoming the obstacles that were brought forth by existing challenges. There are a number of high-tech applications that human services organizations employ, which consist of Power Point Presentations, word processing, spreadsheet, as well as software, that produce various reports. One of the most contemporary technological devices to be integrated into the everyday tasks of the human services organizations are media or video presentations.
According to Peter, (2004) one challenge that exists for human services organizations is that it needs the right tools to provide the people with the various services needed. If they do not have the necessary tools to communicate information to the community regarding the services being provided, then it means the community will be unaware of what the organization provides. The organization will thus stand to lose if since the will have no clientele.
A number of strategies can be of use in such situations and for the organization, it means they have to include different ways to enable clients to acquire the information they need. This mostly applies to non-profit organizations that need to make their awareness known to the community. One way to minimize the communication barrier would be to take advantage of technology and create a website to make their services public. The website would comprise information about their location, the daily hours of operation thus making their information aware to the public. The internet is the assistance they need since organizations always look for resources to include to their websites meaning awareness about the organization will be created.
According to Davis, (2011) they can also ensure that their website is indexed to enable search engines to easily find it. Other ways that the organization could use is to take advantage of applications like Microsoft word or Microsoft PowerPoint to create weekly or monthly newsletters. These can be used along with other forms of marketing materials in order to create awareness about the organization, the vision of the organization, programs offered, daily hours of operation as well as the resources they have.
The likely tools that such an organization could make use of to create their website are through web editing tools like Pico Search. This tool is efficient and easy to comprehend and use. Also available is the Google Search Engine and it provides a number of sites to include to the specific organization. It also allocates a section for community invitations that brings sites to an organization’s search engine.
Another possible challenge in the field of human services is that the organization wants to be aware of whether their clients manage to acquire the resources they require. A number of clients have many reasons not to give out their private information in cases such as going to get food at a food bank. This could be because of certain reasons like embarrassment or maybe they are out of work thus having no finances to show as their information. Other reasons could be regarding medical information or medical conditions they have along with information that clients deem as sensitive.
In the case of elderly people, they are always extremely private regarding anything personal. Their reasons could be that they are afraid of exploitation about information concerning their income. Others are afraid of losing their money since they are unaware of what the people who know about it would do with the information. Information about their spouses or family is sensitive to them since they are afraid of being kept in nursing homes. A tool that could be of use in such a situation is such as Microsoft Word documents explaining to the community or the elderly people that the organization keeps the information while having no idea what the information about their clients are. This is to ensure that there is no illegal person who has access to this information. This information can be accessed only when the client needs help.
Lack of funding is a problem that affects organizations and is a barrier to human services. Without funding, an organization has difficulty maintaining operations to providing services to the community. The organization has to create awareness by putting up links for donations on their website and this is taking advantage of technology especially for non-profit organizations. The community can be involved by participating and volunteering in roles that benefit the society. The organization thus spreads the word through posters and advertisements and by reaching out to the community so that they can be involved in matters that benefit them.
Technology has enabled organizations to give human services more efficiently and tackle the barriers that existed before technology was present. Despite the challenges they face like funding, creating awareness, communicating with their clients, tools like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint are helpful in most of these organizations. It is always a fine idea to have these forms of technology along with the internet to ensure that the clientele of an organization are kept in touch. This information can also be kept and retrieved when the client is in need. Technology is an advantage to non-profit organizations and it boosts the work that the human services workers face every day. It also brings the community closer thereby maintaining the crucial link that enable these services to continue under the conditions that clients see most fit.
References
Davis, J. F. (ND). NPowers Technology Guide for Nonprofit Leader: A Mission Support Tool for Health and Human Services. Retrieved January 21, 2011, from NPower Technology Guide for Nonprofit Leaders: Health and Human Services: http:www.npower.org/files/page/techgudes-health.pdf
Peter Day, Douglas Schuler (2004) Community Practice in the Network Society: Local Action, Global Interaction. London: Routledge Publishers.
