 Needs Assessment: Community and Individual

 Human service professionals constantly assess client needs according to the emergence of social problems compared with service availability.  This assessment is completed in formal or informal settings such as an office interview (formal) or observations made during an in-home visit (informal).  Knowing how to assess clients’ needs and then how to make an appropriate referral is an essential job task.

 Creating appropriate needs assessment surveys of clients during an intake session helps human service professionals make appropriate referrals to agencies.  Understanding: o what to ask o how to ask o how to prioritize needs ***Is essential for service delivery

 Using knowledge of social problems and problem solving skills will assist the human service professional in making predictions of services that will be needed in the future.

 Human service professionals must adhere to federal and state laws and regulations that dictate proper collection, storage, and use of client private information, and many of these laws originated in response to a social problem. o For example, because of issues with breaches of confidentiality and obtaining health insurance HIPAA laws. o Human service professionals who work in most job settings are carefully trained and required to follow these regulations. o Failure to do so can result in being fired and/or losing state or national certifications (field specific)

 KIDS COUNT:  KIDS COUNT DATA CENTER:  CHILD WELFARE DATA: aspx?cat=38 aspx?cat=38

 US Department of Labor   e.shtml e.shtml

You are working as an employment specialist at a substance abuse agency and work primarily with clients who have successfully completed residential treatment and are currently living in a transitional living facility (some are still referred to as halfway houses). o List all of the problems that you can find in the scenario related to Carlos in order of most immediate need to least. o Describe what you will do to help him with the first two needs that you listed. o What obstacles might he have in accessing services? o What can you do to help him to work around the potential obstacles?

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