Technology Solutions for Human Services Paper
April Fraley
September 9, 2012
BSHS/352
Don Iliff

Technology Solutions for Human Services
Introduction
With every occupation barriers are encountered and the human services occupations are no different. There are many different areas in the human services occupations such as funding, services, planning and empowerment where barriers can and are encountered. Where funding and services are in the forefront and often looked at when changes are made, empowerment is placed on a back burner and sometimes even forgotten completely. Empowerment is an important part of the human services profession and therefore the barriers that affect empowerment associated with human services need to be looked at and addressed.

Barriers
Within human services empowerment is a key aspect of helping individuals seeking help. Human services professionals work with individuals in need of help that the individual is unable to achieve on his or her own. Where human service professionals have an array of information and guidance available to him or her, clients that seek out assistance from human services professionals do not. This is where empowerment begins to take shape and where human services individuals start encountering barriers in the attempts of empowerment.
Barriers become present in many different shapes and forms when empowerment is concerned. One of the biggest barriers that a human service professional encounters in regards to empowerment is resistance. When human services professionals begin helping individuals the human service professional works on the individual’s self-esteem and empowers the individual to become independent. Many times this empowerment is met with resistance caused by the fear that an individual has with the change that will occur. This resistance can be a large barrier in the way of empowerment for the client and the human services professional.
Another barrier that is a problem in the human services field is poverty. When people are at poverty levels it is hard for them to be able to find transportation to places to apply for the help they may need to improve their situation. Poverty makes it hard for many familiesto purchase a computer which is almost a need and not just a want today. Without a computer itis difficult to apply for Tina considering that in today's world almost everything is done by computer or using the internet.
One final barrier this paper will address is the age barrier. Elderly adults may not know how to work a computer because they did not grow up using one like younger people today. If a person does not know how to use a computer or the site or system they are using is complicated it can hinder that person from seeking the help they need. Human services providers are finding that he or she must find new ways to help the elderly with the aid of technology such as computers programs that include geographic information systems (GIS) in which will help locate elderly individuals in need of assistance in rural areas.

Community Development Braking Barriers
The use of technology in community development can help deliver services, proved an increase in reading or to community members, and also help empower community members to improve their own lives. The main goal of community development is to enrich the lives of the people that live in the community. Community development can help address the barriers stated above by using technology tools to help the organization empower the community to improve the look of the community over all and to improve the less of all the people involved. Community development can help by providing community centers where people would be able to use computers if they did not have one due to income levels. They can also provide computer classes for other people who are not technologically savvy to improve their ability to use a computer to apply for services they may need.
Technology Tools to Overcome Barriers
Organizations can use website development to improve their website to make it easier to use. Simpler websites make it easier for consumers or clients to find and apply for what they need. They can having staff available to help clients that are not able to understand what they need to do to apply for the services they need. Another technology that could be useful in breaking barriers is online systems that are used to track progress of the clients or the community in general to help figure out what needs to be worked on next. This can help show goals that have been completed and ones that still need to be worked on. Technology can help overcome the empowerment barrier by small local businesses making websites and using online resources to build up better business and make money to improve the look of their store.
The use of technology in human services can be a great tool. Today you can make charts and set up presentations to explain how things are going and to train New staff. These technology applications come in handy when organizing information of clients. Today video chatting and email make it much easier to communicate between different organizations. There are also websites that make you able to save and store information in a centralized location that make it available to anyone that is connected to that network.
Information Technology IT
Technology offers various tools that help human service organizations and human services professionals improve and increase service delivery. From service planning, to program development, to empowerment of individuals and families, technology is a driving force in the human service field. In any service that involves people, problems and barriers arise. The human service industry contains barriers that sometimes hinder service, effectiveness, and productivity. Information technology also called IT provides assistance and solutions that can remove the barriers that impede services. In human service agencies, the areas of planning, development, funding, and information gathering are perhaps the most important areas to human service professionals. Information gathering, case management, and funding are areas of human services that rely on accurate information and precise data. If these areas encounter barriers, the entire organization could falter and suffer.
Conclusion
This paper has addressed different barriers that are associated with human services. It also pointed out some technology solutions to help overcome these barriers. There are so many application available for human services workers to use that it makes no sense that there are families and individual to go without the services they need.