Human Services and its Concern with Human Care - Article Example

Human Services and its Concern with Human Care So far as the concept of “human services” is related to the welfare of human being, its definition infers some major issues that are concentrated on two key issues. The first one is the specification of the needs of the field of the services and the characteristics of the individuals that are supposed to receive the services. These issues while being settled are always confronted into a choice between two approaches: minimalism and maximalism, terms used by Chaim Zins. While the basic approaches are to confront with the optimal approaches in order to specify the human needs, the differentiated approaches are put onto contrast with the universal approaches. Necessarily this approaches yield the basis for the four-category model theory in order to categorize the human service organizations. The uniqueness of this model lies in the fact that it makes a high contribution to the societal wellbeing that is based on the conjunction of the needs and the recipients. Also only three of the four approaches can make the definition of human services. These approaches, the differentiated approaches, the universal basic, the universal optimal approaches to define the human services and their needs and the characteristics prove their efficacy. In the changing context of a Post modern era, as the concepts of basic have been interpreted from different points of view, the two basic welfare approaches have to define the grounds basic human needs. Necessarily these approaches result into the concepts of “quality of life”, “human rights”, “social welfare”. But at the same time the universal optimal approaches are to prepare congenial criteria for the concept of human services. These approaches are outlined in such a way that they are ordained to include all of the services that are offered in a modern state. One of the weak points of these approaches is that they often ignore the concept of Human services as social services that are designed to meet human needs. Care and its Relation with Culture, Gender other Issues The concept of care is often confronted with the policies that are directly or indirectly related to the cultural factors and issues regarding age, sex and gender. Also these issues are related to the structure of the various institutions of human society. These factors issues of culture and society are interrelated with each other in such a way that any adverse effect on one of them affects others in a difficult way. So any preordained and prefixed policy of care is to face the collapse in any unwanted situation in which personal wit is supposed to serve the best. In most of the human societies human services including the labor of care-giving are divided on the basis of sex and gender related relationships between individuals. Also the care-services of care are also supposed to be best suit with the nature of women. As a result complications arise when any particular culture draws restrictions upon the cross sex care-services. Necessarily the human services regarding care-giving activities of both individuals and the institutions of society need to be defined from a universal and all-embracing point of view. So the policy of care essentially includes the concept of family care and community care, as care within a family and a community is determined best by the environment of the community with which the families shares their values. As to the concept of care it relates to the fundamental aspects of moral and political theory. But the aspects of morals are to deal with the issues of human interdependence that often tends to the dilemma of autonomy or dependence. In order to tackle these opposing issues the concept of care should be outlined in a way that delineates the moral boundaries including the terrain of political life. An effective definition of care has to embrace several issues in order to be pertinent to the purpose of social welfare. It should include all of the human interactions with others. It should be dyadic or individualistic. But if care is defined as a relationship that prevails between a mother and a child, this type of care is based more on the disposition of the individuals and ignores the role of care as duty and responsibility. Again if care is defined as a form of human relationship that is void of human disposition, is fruitless to contribute to the welfare of human being and society. So care should be defined as an amalgamation of the affinity between individuals and the sense of duty and responsibility. An effective definition of care also must include the cultural factors that concern with the individuals. If care is considered as a process of both practice and disposition, it encapsulates a broad range of human activities of individuals within the society and the social institutions. Care Management and its Relation with Culture, Gender other Issues Care management and assessment play a significant role in the community care system. The definition of care management has a lot to do with the terminology as it changes. Generally care management refers to the management of care. It includes some key-features such as functions, goals, core tasks, main features and multi-level response. Necessarily functions involve coordination and linkage of care services. Care management is orientated towards the goals of providing integrated community care. It focuses primarily on the opportunity for home based care; promote client wellbeing and making the better use of resources. The core task of care management appears to be the case-finding and screening, assessment, care planning, monitoring and other necessary accessories for care. The functions of care management are ordained to manage the care arrangements in order to respond to the needs of the targeted person or people. The care arrangements are to be managed by the devoted person or team who are involved organizing, coordinating and operating the care works and materials. Then the goals of care management are to be dealt, as it is one of the major features of the care management. Care management looses its true meaning without a proper outline of its goals. Various scholars have marked out several goals for the task of care management. Moxley marks out three goals of care management. They are to improve client utilization support, to promote service efficiency, to promote human wellbeing. As to the core task of care management it includes the case-finding, screening, assessment, care planning, etc that maintains a hierarchical order. In the first place comes the assessment of the problems and care planning is needed to be prepared. Then a thorough monitoring of the condition is necessary to prevent further problems. Finally there is the case closure that is to be performed when the case management ends with any event like the death of the person or something else. Indeed there is a problem with the features of Care management that its features often overlap with each other. Care workers often are to tackle some environmental and gender related issues while performing their tasks. The notion of a home is always associated with the privacy of individuals. Whenever a care-worker enters the home he recognizes it as private and feelings of uncertainty and wonderment assist them to the doorway of a home. A commitment of respect for the norms and values of the owner of the home is imposed upon the care workers from the very moment they enter a house. They have to follow the norms and work ethics of not being over-inquisitive and going beyond the limitation of what is necessary. Indeed Julia Twigg is eloquent enough to mark out a set of “to-do’s of the care-workers. According to her a care-worker should take anything granted or look in drawers in order to avoid the accusations of theft. Care at home necessarily requires that the client has to allow the care workers to enter their home. Entering home may varied for people of different cultures, values, norms, etc. Even this variation is related with sex and age also and social status of the clients. Though some people warmly allow care workers to enter their home, some other views the entrance as intrusion. They think such because of their norms and notions about their home. For them privacy of a home is inviolable because some gender concern or others. Mainly the entrance of care workers into a room is considered as intrusion in most cases by women. It is such because women are directly related to the territory of a home. According to Julia Twigg the ideology plays a significant role in the power dynamics of care. Ideology of home often allows an old or disabled people to practice their influence on the intrusion of care workers. Home is always associated with the sense of possession and this possession ensures the dominance and authority of the owner in the space of home. Older people can resist the entrance of the care workers and professionals at great ease. As Care work is very often related to body works, as it has to tackle some cultural and religious issues that are related with norm and values related with body of different sexes. Social institutions have been interpreted variously by scholars but there is no particular and all-embracing definition f social institution. Vaguely it refers to places rooms, buildings, consortium, etc or groups in abstract sense, where people of same mentality, status, rank meet to share ideas, feelings, emotions etc. Some institutions may have a fixed number of members and the relationships between the members and the institutions may be economic and from this relationships both parties seems to make benefit. The relationship between the institutions and the individuals or the members may be formed on the basis of entertainment or any other interest. Generally the institutions are formed with the individuals who share so many things in common. According to Erving Goffman, the institutions possess something of the time and common interests of its members. Institutions of a society can be divided into five rough categories. There are institutions where people with same incapability feel secured and harmless. In such institutions the relationship among the members are built on the basis of affinity for each other. These are the homes for the blind, the aged, etc the people with physical handicaps. Then there are institutions in which people share the feelings that they are threat to the society and take attempts to keep themselves aloof from the society. The members of such institutions are the people with TB, leprosies, etc. Again another type of institution is formed for people, by third forces, who are felt dangerous for the society. These threatening people are kept within the institutions in order to make the society safe from them. There is another type of institution that is purposely established and assigned with some particular tasks that are beneficial for others. This type of institution includes army barracks, work camps, boarding schools, etc. Finally there are the institutions that are established as places for people who want to retreat from the worldly activities. These institutions are abbeys, monasteries, convents, etc. Indeed Goffman’s categorization of total institutions proves to be effective to trace the common characteristics of institutions but in some cases they fail to encapsulate some others institutions that exists in modern contexts. In Modern industrial society the interrelationships between the primary groups such as family, friends, neighbors etc have been redefined and re-determined in a way that is significantly different from the past human societies. The relationship between individuals in these informal institutions and groups is not formed on the basis of any monetary rewards or any hard and fast commitment; rather individual relationships are formed on the mutual understandings, duty, responsibility, affections and respect. It is asserted that the importance of these informal institutions or primary networks is the fact that these informal institutions form the basis of the formal institutions. Indeed these informal institutions are essential to make the aim of the formal institutions fruitful. But a problem arises from the conflicts between the high living standard provided by the formal institutions and the values of affections stressed by the informal groups. Eventually the draconian choice is proposed as a possible solution to this problem. The draconian choice proposes to select either of the two options. But in order to maintain an environment that will be congenial to the institution’s aim it is necessary to form the primary-group bonds within the formal institutions. Indeed a two-fold solution to this problem is that either the structure of the primary group networks or the structure of the formal Institutions is to be changed in order to adjust the distance between the two types of opposing institutions. In the context of modern industrial society the proposition of such solution appears to be fruitful to make the formal institutions with conflicting structures pertinent to the existing primary group networks. Policy of Australian Government regarding Health Care In his research paper, “Coordinating Health, Extended Care, and Community Support Services: Reforming Aged Care in Australia” Michael D. Fine points out that the multitude of the various programs and services has been a problem by creating fragmentations in the field of community care. Over the last two decades overcoming these fragmentations and improving the continuity between the fragmented care attempts has won the attention of the Government. But recently the then Government has shifted their attention from the reforms and sought to reduce the federal deficits. The attempts to overcome the fragmentations of the care units necessitate a theory that will draw a continuum among these hospitals, residential care, and community care and other health care providers. Also coordination between community care service between for older people and people with disability was also targeted. According to the author the successful approach appears to be the introduction of limited and incremental reforms that are supposed to function within the constraint of the existing systems. The success of this approach lies in the fact that they do not involve further reform of funding bodies and jurisdictions. Also it does not attempt to bring about a change related services. Anyway finally it is evident that the approaches are not as important as the fact the spirit for improved coordination should not harm the contribution of non-profit care providing organizations. In the paper ‘the Government and Civil Society’ Deborah Brennan discusses the new trend in Australian Government that establish and reinforce the dominance of market thinking in public administration. The new trend is that citizens are increasingly viewed as consumers and consequently this view has stunning effect on the policy of the Government. It considers that the primary interests of consumers are private and personal. As a result citizens are no longer viewed as a group with collective interests; rather citizens are viewed as the interest mongers. Deborah Brennan rightly points out those notions such as justice, solidarity, community are not valid in such type of thinking. Read More