Thinking back to my younger years in human services a common refrain was “no matter the cost, if we only helped one person, it was worth it.”
Fast forwarding to recent times, I have not heard anyone say this. Times are tough, budgets are tight, funding levels decease…if they exist at all. Human services has become much more business orientated and goal driven. At the same time, money has changed the field forever. Salaries have increased, we follow medical models, yet clients are being served at lower rates than ever before. Agencies are saying yes to almost anything in hopes of staying afloat.
Agencies and staff are supposed to be everything to everyone. Specialization and having a small shop is considered the opposite of modern. Tell me the last time anyone did anything of high quality when the answer was always “yes”. Saying no is now a four letter word.
We reserve the highest level of service, for those in the greatest need…and designed systems that rely on federal funding to support treatment teams that cost over $20,000 a year per client…simply because we can and the money is there for the taking.
Yet, individuals with moderate or low service needs are left out in the cold. This is justified by using evidenced based research or other thinking the field has been forced into accepting. We practice by evidence that few actually believe in, we just accept it like mindless souls who are afraid to stand up for our clients. Seems like No Child Left Behind to me, just in the helping field.
Human nature is not a science. Human Services are driven by humanity, and individuality.
This post was first made over 13 years ago on a Tumblr Blog – CJE