The Oklahoma Department of Human Services. The agency was
created in the Depression year of 1936, it was established because it
was during a time of desperate human need. This agency was
established by the voters of Oklahoma by an amendment to the
Oklahoma Constitution, its original name was the Department of
Public Welfare. The mission of this agency was to give help and relief
to those who couldn't necessarily do so for themselves. As stated on
their website, “the relief and care of needy aged persons who are
unable to provide for themselves, and other needy persons who, on
account of immature age, physical infirmity, disability, or other cause,
are unable to provide or care for themselves..."(OKDHS,
About Us
2022).
A few events in human services history that relates to my agency
would be the landmak federal legislation which established the
Medicaid program in 1966 and the federally financed Food Stamp
Program that began in 1974. It was another way of helping
Oklahomans who weren't receiving help under the other programs.
Also, in the 1990s there was a legislation that brought out many of
the services from under the OKDHS umbrella and moved them to
independent agencies of their own. Which followed with a
constitutional amendment changing the governance structure,
changing the different areas of help causing them to have to report to
the Govenor of Oklahoma. All these events in human service history
happened at a state level causing change within the agency to help
make it better and more reliable with the help it provides to its
clients.
References
About Us
. Human Services Department - OKDHS. (n.d.). Retrieved
from https://oklahoma.gov/okdhs/about-us.html
Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, August 2).
Oklahoma Department of
Human Services
. Wikipedia. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Department_of_Human_Ser
vices
