Skills and Characteristics of Human Services Workers
Skills and Characteristics of Human Services Workers
Angela Taylor
BSHS 471
May 7, 2013
Dave Sweeney
Skills and Characteristics of Human Services Workers An excellent mental health human service worker needs to have certain skills and characteristics to be of use to his or her clients. Some of these skills and characteristics include facilitation, communication, leadership, expertise, knowledge of subject matter, cultural competency, and so on. These skills and characteristics can be developed and refined as his or her experience grows, but it is important to understand them already. Knowledge and expertise are two of the most important skills for a human service worker to have. When clients come in for help, they want a worker with knowledge who will be able to help them. The client needs to feel comfortable that the human service worker he or she is seeing has knowledge and expertise on the client’s issues, especially. For the worker, knowledge and expertise benefit him or her as well. If the worker has a client coming in with an issue the worker has never dealt with before, then it would be smart for the worker to do some research on that subject in preparation. If the proper knowledge cannot be gained in the time before the appointment, it probably would be wiser for another worker who already has the knowledge to help that client. The human service worker always needs to remember that it is the client’s needs that come first, no matter whether it hurts the workers pride or not. Another important characteristic a human service worker needs to have is passion for the subject matter. If a human service worker is not passionate about what he or she is doing then it will show to his or her clients. This lack of passion negatively could impact the client as well as the human service worker. People do not do their best work if there is no passion, and when dealing with people’s lives those people expect their worker to be doing his or her
Angela Taylor
BSHS 471
May 7, 2013
Dave Sweeney
Skills and Characteristics of Human Services Workers An excellent mental health human service worker needs to have certain skills and characteristics to be of use to his or her clients. Some of these skills and characteristics include facilitation, communication, leadership, expertise, knowledge of subject matter, cultural competency, and so on. These skills and characteristics can be developed and refined as his or her experience grows, but it is important to understand them already. Knowledge and expertise are two of the most important skills for a human service worker to have. When clients come in for help, they want a worker with knowledge who will be able to help them. The client needs to feel comfortable that the human service worker he or she is seeing has knowledge and expertise on the client’s issues, especially. For the worker, knowledge and expertise benefit him or her as well. If the worker has a client coming in with an issue the worker has never dealt with before, then it would be smart for the worker to do some research on that subject in preparation. If the proper knowledge cannot be gained in the time before the appointment, it probably would be wiser for another worker who already has the knowledge to help that client. The human service worker always needs to remember that it is the client’s needs that come first, no matter whether it hurts the workers pride or not. Another important characteristic a human service worker needs to have is passion for the subject matter. If a human service worker is not passionate about what he or she is doing then it will show to his or her clients. This lack of passion negatively could impact the client as well as the human service worker. People do not do their best work if there is no passion, and when dealing with people’s lives those people expect their worker to be doing his or her