The three models of service delivery have unique share some
similarities and differences between each other. First, there is the
medical model which treats clients and their issues like how medical
professionals treat patients and a disease. However this model
includes mental illness as one such disease that prevents patients,
which is what clients are called in this model, from functioning and
thus provide medical interventions to treat it (Woodside & McClam,
2018, p. 137). Next is the public health model which shares the
medical model’s diagnosis and medical treatment process. However
the public health model differs in that it extends healthcare to
populations rather than individuals, attempts to solve society’s social
problems, takes a multi-causal approach in analyzing the origins of a
client’s problems, and focuses on prevention of future issues
(Woodside & McClam, 2018, p. 142).
Finally there is the human service model which focuses on the
interactions between the individual and their environment with the
issues being seen as “problems in living” more than anything else
(Woodside & McClam, 2018, p. 148). With this model, problems are
considered a necessary part of life and are a result of the
environment around an individual. Like the medical and public health
models, clients can be individuals or populations within the human
services model. However, the human services model differs greatly in
terms of its treatment as it takes the approach of developing problem
solving strategies and identifying client strengths with the ultimate
goal being to enhance the client’s quality of life by teaching them
problem solving skills a (Woodside & McClam, 2018, p. 148).
References
Woodside, M. R., & McClam, T. (2018).
An Introduction to Human
Services
(9th ed.). Cengage Learning
