Everything You Need to Know About Human & Social Services

Having a stable job that pays the bills is essential, of course, but it is also important to have a fulfilling career that makes the world a better place. Today, more than ever, nearly every community needs the support of capable and compassionate professionals. If you feel the need to help your community-and make a great living doing it-a career in the human and social services field might be right for you.

If you are considering a career in human and social services, you might wonder what the job entails. Here is what you need to know about this career path before deciding to pursue it.

What Is Human Services?

The human services profession is a diverse field driven by just one goal: to help meet people’s basic human needs. Social services is a subset of human services. The primary mission of social service workers is to create a more equitable society by enhancing the well-being of people in need. Together, human and social services aim to meet the physiological and wellness needs of the community by helping individuals find the treatment, prevention, counseling, and remediation tools they need.

Human and social services is an interdisciplinary field, which means career professionals have a wide variety of skills, experience, and expertise in helping and understanding people who are in need. The umbrella term “human and social services” covers a number of job titles, including:

? Adult day care worker

? Case management aide

? Child advocate

? Client advocate

? Community organizer

? Group home worker

? Juvenile court liaison

? Life skills instructor

? Mental health aide

? Social work assistant

? Youth worker

Because of the diversity in job titles, human and social services professionals work in a number of different community, residential care, or institutional settings, such as mental health centers, drug or alcohol rehabilitation facilities, group homes and halfway houses, correctional facilities, and child and family services agencies.

Careers in human and social services are growing much faster than other occupations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), jobs are projected to increase 17% over the next 10 years. Jobs as probation officers, marriage and family therapists, and school/career counselors are also growing, but may pay higher than other careers in this field. However, pay will vary depending on the setting and role. The need for these workers will also grow as individuals and communities recover from the pandemic, environmental disasters, and other challenges.

What Is the Importance of Human Services?

According to the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS), the primary purpose of the human services professional is “to assist individuals and communities to function as effectively as possible in the major domains of living.”

Even good, strong people need a little help sometimes, and when they do, human and social services are there to serve them. Those who work in human and social services provide resources to the most vulnerable members of the community, including the very young and the elderly, people with physical or mental health issues, those who have been abused, individuals overcoming addiction, and citizens struggling to put the pieces of their lives back together after a natural disaster or other catastrophe.

No matter who we are or where we come from, all of us will find ourselves vulnerable at some point in life. We all age, everyone gets sick now and then, and almost nobody succeeds without some measure of help and advocacy from the community. Many of us are just one injury, trauma, or disaster away from needing help. Without external support from a human and social services professional, quality of life can completely collapse. Those who do not receive intervention may experience homelessness, suffer chronic pain or illness, struggle with addiction, or even die.

Human & social services improve the community

In addition to helping individuals, human and social services play an essential role in the overall health and well-being of a community. These professionals help secure aid for disaster victims, provide support for young people in the foster care system, find care and coverage for the blind or disabled, and change the trajectory of people’s lives at critical moments. They help teens coping with addiction find the treatment, resources, and medications they need to lead successful lives as adults, or help families who have lost a home in a natural disaster find the support they need to avoid bankruptcy.

The work that human and social services professionals perform benefits individual members of the community, but it also benefits the community as a whole. Many of the services help communities save money, for example. Child abuse and neglect costs the United States