Human Services
Human Service Manager Exercise Paper
Human Service Manager’s have a great deal of responsibilities, including communication and interviewing skills. Human service staff rely on the assistance, support and directives from his or her manager. This paper will discuss the recommendations and strategies for three staff Case Study situations. Tom Martin, a 32 year old divorced, Caucasian male, is employed as an individual counselor for adult clients with an agency for four years. Tom has displayed mediocre job performance, complaints have been filed against him and several female clients terminated service.
A female client has informed Tom’s supervisor of sexual comments Tom has made, their out-of-office date and gifts he has bought for her. Tom denied the accusations although admitted to his attraction to his client. Tom’s supervisor should have addressed some issues before it had gotten to this point. He should have been referred for additional supervisory support and monitoring due to client complaints and client termination of counseling. Tom should have also been referred to re-training for his average job performance after four years in that position. The supervisor should have referred Tom to counseling due to his obvious issue with intimacy and boundaries. I believe Tom should be released from his position as an individual counselor. Had Tom’s supervisor addressed these concerns, Tom may have had the opportunity to work on his job performance and sexual issues. Out-of-office dates and gifts are acceptable if it relates to the client/clinician relationship. Sexual comments made to a client is unacceptable and violates the counselors code of ethics. “Counseling is an intimate experience in which lots of feelings can arise, including sexual ones” (Dillon & Murphy, 2003, p. 268). Due to Tom’s history with female clients and over-stepping the boundaries, the
Human Service Manager’s have a great deal of responsibilities, including communication and interviewing skills. Human service staff rely on the assistance, support and directives from his or her manager. This paper will discuss the recommendations and strategies for three staff Case Study situations. Tom Martin, a 32 year old divorced, Caucasian male, is employed as an individual counselor for adult clients with an agency for four years. Tom has displayed mediocre job performance, complaints have been filed against him and several female clients terminated service.
A female client has informed Tom’s supervisor of sexual comments Tom has made, their out-of-office date and gifts he has bought for her. Tom denied the accusations although admitted to his attraction to his client. Tom’s supervisor should have addressed some issues before it had gotten to this point. He should have been referred for additional supervisory support and monitoring due to client complaints and client termination of counseling. Tom should have also been referred to re-training for his average job performance after four years in that position. The supervisor should have referred Tom to counseling due to his obvious issue with intimacy and boundaries. I believe Tom should be released from his position as an individual counselor. Had Tom’s supervisor addressed these concerns, Tom may have had the opportunity to work on his job performance and sexual issues. Out-of-office dates and gifts are acceptable if it relates to the client/clinician relationship. Sexual comments made to a client is unacceptable and violates the counselors code of ethics. “Counseling is an intimate experience in which lots of feelings can arise, including sexual ones” (Dillon & Murphy, 2003, p. 268). Due to Tom’s history with female clients and over-stepping the boundaries, the