Human Service Management

Posted: November 27th, 2013

Human Service Management

Name:

Course:

Institution:

Instructor:

Date:

Human Service Management

In human services, a problem is an unresolved situation or an unmet need in a given society. The society usually has many unfulfilled situations and unmet needs that are referred to as problems. For instance, medical necessities, children that lack basic health care, societal financial needs and communal immunizations are all examples of human services problems. A policy is defined as a rule or legislation that is put in place to regulate the offering of human services to the society. There regulations also surround the payments for such services by setting reasonable supply prices. For instance, immunizations and drugs for ailments such as malaria and HIV have a legislation that determines how they are issued and at what price to the public. A program is a plan that is laid out to enable the society access a specific urgent service. It is composed of a clearly laid out plan and source of funding for maintenance factors. Most human services plans are funded by either the government or humanitarian non-governmental organizations. For instance, a campaign involving issuance of free mosquito nets to a specific neighborhood or a state due to the prevalence of malaria may be supported by government or humanitarian agencies (Mooney, Knox & Schacht, 2010).

Social problems refer to conditions that are termed as harmful to the society. There are several social problems including, urban poverty, unemployment, crime, housing, education and pollution. Urban poverty in the United States is becoming worse in each successive period. This is evident as the number of poor people in the United States cities have grown exponentially from statistics noted ten or twenty years ago. Poverty is more concentrated in inner cities and neighborhoods that surround them. This is due to rural urban migrations as people relocate from rural areas in search of employment in big cities. In spite of race, there are poor people in American cities and the numbers are growing every year. Poverty is mainly caused by unemployment, which is another social problem facing the American society. The number of unemployed people in America is about fourteen million translating to nine percent. The rate has noted various fluctuations in various periods but it has remained constant fore the preceding few years. Crime is a big social problem in America creating a notable issue to federal law enforcement agencies. In the US nation, in terms of residential regions, there are about four thousand crimes in every one hundred thousand residents. This crime rate is very high compared to preceding years when there was less crime. Crime is usually attributed to the unemployment issue as residents are coerced into illegitimate practices towards realizing a living. America has also noted poor housing and many cases of homeless individuals. This is due to the growing shortage of good and affordable housing, whether rental or mortgaged. The rise in homelessness is also due to enhanced poverty. Poor education has increases in many public schools. This is due to the increase in children attending free education schedules and the reduction in qualified teachers resulting to poor teacher student ratio, which makes learning ineffective. There is also a great deal of pollution in America. This is mostly attributable to industrialization and poor legislations towards guarding the environment from degradation by the given industries. Pollution is also caused by petroleum products and fuels within the nation. This is mostly noted in vehicles that produce harmful chlorofluorocarbons that harm the ozone layer and the air (Parrillo, 2008).

The United Nations (UN) is a renowned international humanitarian organization. The organization comprises of various branches including United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) amongst others. The organization tackles a majority of the social problems in a global scale. Specifically it has accorded efforts to deal with poverty in the United States after identifying that forty-four million Americans live below the poverty line (United Nations, 2011). The organization, through a Christian organization known as the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has instituted several community based development projects that aim at improving the living standards and conditions of the people of America. The UN does not advocate for racial discrimination and helps people all over the world regarding such problems in both developed and developing nations.

References

Mooney, L.A., Knox, D., & Schacht, C. (2010). Understanding Social Problems. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

Parrillo, V. N. (2008). Encyclopedia of social problems, Volume 1. New York, NY: SAGE Publications, Inc.

United Nations. (2011). Poverty in America. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/works/sub4.asp?lang=en&id=25