Technology Solutions for Human Services

Technology Solutions for Human Services

Introduction

In every profession, barriers are encountered and the profession of human services is not different. There are various distinct aspects in the human service profession like empowerment, planning, service delivery and funding where barriers are encountered. Service delivery and funding are in the front position and often considered when changes are made, whereas empowerment is often put on the back side and sometimes it is completely forgotten by the human service organizations. In the profession of human service, empowerment plays a major role and thus the barriers that have an impact on empowerment are needed to be addressed by the human service organizations.

Barriers Associated with Empowerment

In human services, empowerment is the major element for helping people who seek for help. Professionals of human services work with people who seek for help that they are unable to attain on their own. Professionals of human services have an array of guidance and information available for individuals; clients do not have this guidance and information that is why they seek help from human service professionals. This is the point from where empowerment starts to appear in any form, and professionals of human services start facing barriers in the efforts of empowerment (Storbel, 2003).

As far as empowerment is concerned, barriers appear in different forms and shapes. One of the biggest barriers of empowerment that a professional of human services encounters is resistance. When professionals who belong to human service organizations start to help people, they work on the self-esteem of people and empower people to become independent. Often, this empowerment is achieved with resistance that is caused by the fear that people have with change that takes place. This resistance might be a biggest barrier in the path of empowerment for the human service professional and for the client. Other barriers of empowerment can include negative attitudes of individuals and hopelessness of individuals for adopting the human services (Cook, 2000).

Community Development and Empowerment Barriers

Community development helps in addressing the barriers of empowerment as empowerment is the basic belief of community development. Community development values and methods support empowerment plans, and make the empowerment to be attained in sustainable, effective and inclusive manner.

Applications of Technology in Overcoming Barriers of Human Services

Regardless of the fact that there have been several barriers accompanied by large number of human service organizations like empowerment, technology can however afford different resources in order to overcome the barriers of empowerment in human services. The technological advancement can enhance the performance of human service organizations, and can help to surmount the barriers of empowerment. Some of the highly technical applications that can be used by human service organizations include spreadsheet, PowerPoint Presentations, word processing, and software for generating different reports. Currently, the technological tools that can be incorporated into the routine operations of the human service organizations are media or video presentations (Altekruse, 2000).

The making of presentations and videos can be made effectual and potent with the ...