Qualities and Characteristics of a Professional Human Service Worker
A professional human service worker is a person who generally works in helping the people with special needs to meet their objectives. The work of these people is to help those people who are the minority in a society (National Organization of Human Service, 2009). The minority include the old aged people, the disabled, those who are racially discriminated and those with gender problems. These people are expected to hold the qualities of integrity, respect and competence. Additionally, they are expected to have the certain characteristics such as knowledge, honesty and experience in order for them to be able to perform their work in a professional way.
One of the qualities that they are expected to have is the quality of integrity. This is where they are expected to treat the human needs first before their own as they practice professionalism. Additionally, they are expected to be people of high dignity since they are catering for the needs of those people who cannot be able to speak for themselves (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). For instance, they are expected to help the disabled. If they are people of low dignity, they cannot be able to help them since nobody will believe them when they are helping them.
Another quality that the human service workers must have is respect. These people are the minority. This means that most of the times they are not respected by anybody. This is where their rights are violated or people mistreat them due to their different problems. For instance, the old people are very complicated people since they are full of knowledge but they are unable to cater for their own personal needs. Therefore, if they are not respected, they will be very resistant when they are being helped. Additionally, nobody would want help from somebody who is not respecting him or her (Woodside and McClam 161). Therefore, the human service worker must have the quality of respect.
These people are expected to have the quality of competence. In the performance of their duties, they are expected to be very competent people. This is where they are expected to serve the people with perfection. When they serve the people with perfection, the quality of services will be high. Additionally, these people need to feel wanted since they are discriminated and they are the minority. The main aim is to make these people feel wanted in order to be part of the society (Brill & Joanne 169). Therefore, these people must have the quality of being competent.
On the other hand, these people must have certain characteristics that will help them in serving the human needs of these people. One of the characteristics is that they must be honest. These is where they are expected to be honest to the people they are serving at all times because these people do not trust anybody. Therefore, in order for the human service worker to be able to deliver quality services to these people, they are expected to have the characteristics of honesty.
The human service workers are also expected to be having diverse experience in the job. This is because the different people have different problems most of the time because they are unique. This is because people are not the same thus, they will tend to differ in the different problems each has (Ryan, 2011). It is because of situations like this that the human service worker is expected to have a diverse experience, which will help him or her to cope with the different problems that are emerging.
Lastly, the human service workers are expected to be knowledgeable in the field that they are working on. If one does not have the knowledge of what he or she is doing, mostly he or she would not be competent enough to serve the needs of these people (Burger and Merrill 178). Additionally, it is this knowledge that helps somebody to have the diversity in solving the different problems that might arise in the cause of performing their duties. The people that are being served are people who have special needs and they are usually discriminated by other people due to them being the minority in the society. It is because of this reason that the human service worker is expected to have certain qualities and characteristics. The purpose of qualities is to help in serving these people by making them to feel as part of the community.
Works Cited
Brill, Naomi & Joanne Levine. Working with People: The Helping Process-with Myhelpinglab. Allyn & Bacon, 2005. Print.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Social and Human Service Assistants.” United States Department of Labor. December 17, 2009. Web. June 21, 2011.
Burger, William, and Merrill Youkeles. Human Services in Contemporary America. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning, 2000. Print.
National Organization of Human Service. “What is Human Services?” National Organization of Human Service. 2009. Web. June 21, 2011.
Ryan, Blake. “Code of Ethics for Human Service Workers.” Ehow. June 21, 2011. Web. June 21, 2011.
Woodside, Marianne, and Tricia McClam. An Introduction to Human Services. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
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