The models include the human services model, public health model,
and the medical model. In general, both the medical model and public
health model fail in many client situations. Human services are a
sprawling area of study encompassing a variety of jobs and skill sets.
The focus and defining element of human services is the helping
quality in which human service workers form helping relationships
with clients to assist with issues. The helping relationship is formed
for the idea that human or social issues can be prevented,
remediated, and managed. Human service workers belong to an
interdisciplinary field that draws on many bodies of knowledge to
carry out its functions within the helping relationship. As such the
field of human services is dedicated to improving the quality of life
for its service populations. Human services is founded on the concept
of “helping people improve their lives”. Within this context human
services is similar to social work but not exactly the same. While
social work and human services share the focus of helping people,
each field approaches this goal differently. Typically, human services
workers concentrate their efforts on large populations to deliver
services to groups as opposed to individuals. For example, human
service workers may work with homeless populations as opposed to
individual cases of homelessness. Medical model is for an individual
that has a problem that is either a sickness or disease. These
individuals depend on a physician to provide treatment or a cure for
their sickness or disease. The medical model system consists of the
symptom, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. It follows these steps to
provide well-being to the individual. Public health provides well-
being for the entire community. Public health is defined in three
ways. The first is by examining the history of the developments, the
achievements, and the health successes. The second one is to
achieve the mission of promoting physical and mental health to
prevent any diseases, injuries, or disabilities. For instance, preventing
epidemics being able to control the epidemic before the community
is in danger. The third is to learn how to adapt to the circumstances
of life. Learning how to handle problems in life to maintain physical
and mental health to provide satisfaction in an individual’s life. b
Human services is between the individual and the environment and
balancing out the two of them. For example, if a client has a mental
illness, it will affect their behavior. The human service model will
treat this client by working with both the individual and the
environment that is around him. In this model it is important to focus
on the positive aspects of the client rather than the negatives.
