Professional Skills

Professional Skills

University of Phoenix

BSHS/465 – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY

Abstract

Part of recovery is the possibility of relapse, human services professionals that help clients address his or her problems and issues practice to perfect the principles of human services. The substance abuse population is one of many populations a human services professional would need effective interpersonal skills to work with. Substance abusers are constantly going through changes from the chemical dependency of the body. Substance abuse is intense for a person that does not know what to expect. When a human service professional is not judgmental, it creates good relationship and rapport with the client. The client will help the professional to help guide him or her to attain the main goal of sobriety. Clients who suffer from substance abuse have to be willing to remain abstinent. A human service professional who can relate to a client using substances usually can get a better response from the client. This will make the client more willing to complete the goals of his or her treatment plan when the professional is empathic showing genuine concern. This paper will explore the principles of the human services professional, and the interpersonal skills a professional should possess working with substance abusers.

Professional Skills

Interpersonal Skills

The substance abuse population is one of many populations a human services professional would need effective interpersonal skills to work with. Substance abusers are constantly going through changes from the chemical dependency of the body. The human services professional needs to utilize the principles of human services professionals; acceptance, active listening, communication, empathy, emotional awareness, and interpersonal skills. According to Albertin, Cubells, and Iniguez (2011), “Human service professionals understanding of the positions they occupy in different situations and in the framework of discursive formations grants them agency, at the same time, an understanding of what they are or can be in relation to others, and what others are or can become in the relationship” (pp. 217-232).

Most people who use drugs have a sense of less worth and feelings of degradation. The interpersonal skills of the human services professional have to respond to the needs, feelings, and capabilities of the substance abuser. The human service professional should respect the substance abuser, having compassion, and sensitivity. According to Levine (2013), “Participants must have the ability to be interdependent without anxiety; they must be able to communicate not only on thinking but also on feeling levels; they must be able to be honest and to disagree or express differing opinions without being destructive; and they must be able to let go” (“Establishing and Using Helping Relationships”).

Personal and Professional Qualities

Clients who suffer from substance abuse have to be willing to remain abstinent. A human service professional who can relate to a client using substances usually gets a better response. This will make the client more willing to complete the goals of his or her treatment plan when the professional is empathic showing genuine concern. In drug treatment, if a counselor/clinician experiences or has experience with drug abuse he or she can better understand the client. Clients can sense when a counselor/clinician is “book smart,” the counselor/clinician is not as responsive to the needs of substance abusers. According to Albertin, Cubells, and Iniguez (2011), “Detecting and understanding which position the user is acting from can possibly improve users’ quality of life and the satisfaction of the professionals working in this field” (pp. 217-232).

The counselor/clinician is a role model to the client, some of the personal and professional qualities that human services professionals needs to successfully work with this population are; knowledge of substance abuse, field experience, good observation, and feedback. According to Levine (2013), “Good helping relationships do not just happen. The worker makes conscious use of self establishing a specialized connection with another person. While workers make use of what comes naturally, they also learn and develop generalized skills in relating to people and then apply these skills to specialized situations and persons” (“Establishing and Using Helping Relationships”).

Population Treatment

Depending on the substances the client chose, a client that needs detoxification or is suffering from addiction to opiates he or she is going through pain along with fighting the addiction. The same for alcoholics, the client is in need of something to help him or her get through the pain. Certain drugs have a high level of withdrawal, so the counselor/clinician needs a vast knowledge of medications to help treat the clients throughout the withdrawal process. According to Olmstead and Sindelar (2005), “We find that the impact of Managed Care on Substance Abuse Treatment service offerings differs in magnitude and direction by facility ownership. Many facilities offer fewer services, the differential impact of Managed Care on For-Profits and publics appears to be concentrated in therapy/counseling, medical testing, and transitional services“ (pp. 1862-1882).

The human services worker needs to have empathy for the client, he or she should also remember to respect the client, having compassion, and sensitivity. The client’s level of tolerance may be very low. Many feelings are in the minds of substance abusing clients. The human service professional can make suggestions to the client to reinforce treatment and therapy. Most client feel that any form of treatment is a hindrance. According to Merrick, Reif, and Hiatt (2012), “to the extent that experienced treatment users are likely to have more problems, greater severity or a longer history of substance use problems, they may encounter greater difficulty in treatment and be less likely to achieve a successful outcome” (pp. 1-11).

Strategies to Use With Substance Abusing Clients

As a human service professional keeping up-to-date with knowledge and new phenomena’s is part of gaining the skills a human services professional needs to stay relevant in the field. Some ways a human services professional can improve his or her skills is to understand the client. The human services professional also needs to involve his or herself in the clients daily progress collecting feedback. The substance abusing client will face troubles throughout the treatment process, help the client repair these problems and keep progressing. If a problem presents that the human services professional needs help with keep in contact with agencies who specialize in correcting the problem. According to Hoffman, Green, and Ford (2012), “The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment recommends five principles to promote organizational change: understand and involve the customer, fix key problems, pick a powerful change leader, get ideas from outside the organization, and use rapid cycle testing” Hoffman et al. (2012),

According to Hoffman et al. (2012), “Results suggest that organizations can successfully integrate and apply the five principles as they develop and test change strategies, improving access and retention in treatment, and agencies’ financial status” (pp. 234-244).

Potential Challenges

Some of the potential challenges a human services professional may face treating substance abusing client are funding and limitations to resources. The human services profession has challenges with funding, many organizations rely on funding from the government. The government is cutting back on spending for treatment facilities, this presents a problem with the treatment and the success rates of substance abusing clients. Hoffman et al. (2012), “organizations encountering staffing, accreditation, or financial stress found it difficult to allocate staff time and energy to organizing changes around all five principles. We also found that smaller agencies had more difficulty implementing changes because they had fewer organizational resources of all kinds” (pp. 234-244).

A human services professional needs to focus on his or her interpersonal skills and human services principles to give the client the best quality of treatment that funding will pay for. The skills a humans services professional acquires while in the field will help him or her maintain his or her focus on the client. This will help the client become more active in his or her treatment process limiting the possible challenges to treatment. Hoffman et al. (2012), “Each agency had its own strengths and weaknesses related to the principles and for some, these strengths and weaknesses changed over time. For instance, interviews suggest that agencies with changes in leadership or unstable financial environments went through periods where they were unable to engage fully in change efforts” (pp. 234-244).

When agencies are trying to change the daily operations, it affects the client and staff members. The human services professional has to be ready to face these challenges and continue to treat the client with his or her best efforts to treat the client. Hoffman et al. (2012), “It is also noteworthy that successful process improvements are not without costs. Smaller agencies struggled with changes such as higher clinical caseloads when treatment access was improved. Similarly, increased workload or changes in hours of operation can put a strain on already overburdened staff” (pp. 234-244).

Conclusion

In conclusion, part of recovery is the possibility of relapse, human services professionals that help clients address his or her problems and issues practice to perfect the principles of human services. The substance abuse population is one of many populations a human services professional would need effective interpersonal skills to work with. Substance abusers are constantly going through changes from the chemical dependency of the body. Clients who suffer from substance abuse have to be willing to remain abstinent. A human service professional who can relate to a client using substances usually gets a better response. This will make the client more willing to complete the goals of his or her treatment plan when the professional is empathic showing genuine concern. Most important, When a human service professional is not judgmental, it creates good relationship and rapport with the client. Substance abuse is intense for a person that does not know what to expect. The client will help the professional to help guide him or her to attain the main goal of sobriety.

References

Albertin, P., Cubells, J., & Iniguez, L. (2011). The social constructions of drug users in professional interventions. Journal Of Social Work Practice, 25(2), 217-232

Hoffman, K., Green, C., Ford, J., Wisdom, J., Gustafson, D., & McCarty, D. (2012). Improving quality of care in substance abuse treatment using five key process improvement principles. The Journal Of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 39(3), 234-244

Levine, J. (2013). Working with People. The Helping Process (9th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database

Merrick, E. L., Reif, S., Hiatt, D., Hodgkin, D., Horgan, C. M., & Ritter, G. (2012). Substance abuse treatment client experience in an employed population: results of a client survey. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention & Policy, 7(1), 1-11

Olmstead, T. A., & Sindelar, J. L. (2005). Does the Impact of Managed Care on Substance Abuse Treatment Services Vary by Provider Profit Status. Health Services Research, 40(6P1), 1862-1882