In human services, there are three models, a medical model, public
health model, and human services model. In human services, these
models can be delivered in various ways. All three models are used
depending on the problem. Being in the human services field, you
should know the characteristics of each model and the skills needed
to apply the model to a particular situation. As well as how it is used
to help translate into human services practice. The first Model I will
discuss is the Medical Model. This model sees persons coming for
help as people with a disease or sickness. The individual could have a
physiological-based disease or illness. The individual will be
considered sick or ill. Historically this model can be summarized as a
system that involves symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. The
following is the Social Model, and its characteristics will be personal
and environmental factors contributing to a lack of function. For
example, environmental factors may include a lack of available
services or little family support. In this model, there would be an
individual or group, and environmental and social pressures could
contribute to the problem.
Last but not least, the public health model applies an approach to
studying the causes or origins of a problem to emphasize prevention.
It bridges the medical and human services models, but it's mostly
linked to the medical model. It is a model that focuses on prevention,
empowerment, and self-sufficiency.
References
Woodside, M. R., & McClam, T. (2018).
An Introduction to Human
Services
(9th ed.). Cengage Learning
