The FAMCare Blog

Originally, social services were meant to serve as emergency rooms for society's most vulnerable. They took in orphans and the homeless and fed the hungry. As the twentieth century wore on, social work expanded services to all segments of the less fortunate population, and nonprofits as well as government social agencies began to define their missions by identifying the quality-of-life outcomes their clients achieved. For example, social workers engaged in drug and alcohol addiction began to measure success, not by how many addicts they admitted to their clinics, but rather by how many addicts had remained clean and sober, and for how long, after being discharged from the clinics.

The field of human services, like any other, is constantly evolving. As a result of changing social needs and technological advancements, new trends will emerge. This means that in order to meet the needs of your community, your organization must change the way services are delivered.

You and your team must be up to date on the latest technologies and how they affect the clients and the community you serve. However, how can organizations overcome the challenges posed by change? Innovation can involve both large and subtle changes, and it can occur instantly or gradually in smaller departments or throughout the entire human service industry. Take a look at these human service trends.

Today's blog is written by guest blogger, Sharon Wagner, from Senior Friendly.  We truly appreciate her for sharing these helpful insights for seniors and their families.  

If you have loved ones who are getting on in years, they might have reached a point where they need more help than they will admit. Perhaps you noticed on your last visit they were having trouble keeping up with the house or they needed more assistance than usual. Discover how you can help your family member or loved one by being there in the ways they need.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a heritable neurodevelopmental disability that is characterized by delayed or inconsistent development in social interaction and communication and a restricted repertoire of activity and interests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found a higher prevalence of autism in children than ever before. Autism Spectrum Disorder is currently occurring at a rate of 1 in 59 children in the United States, an 18% increase over the past two years and a 151% increase since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first began to monitor the prevalence of ASD in 2000. Social work academics believe that increased prevalence can be explained, in part, by changes in diagnostic criteria, diagnostic substitution, improved awareness in the public, and increased recognition by clinicians.

Turning the calendar page to welcome a "new" year is an ancient time-keeping practice. Celebrating a "new" year is still the perfect opportunity to pause and take stock of life's evolving circumstances and prepare our minds and hearts for the task at hand.

COVID-19 has affected the world and its societies at unprecedented levels. Ever since the first few cases were reported in the US, things have been spiraling out of the control for both governments and healthcare authorities alike.

A lot of families have lost their loved ones while others are dealing with the long-term side effects of the virus. It’s not as easy for them to adapt to the new normal that others are embracing.

The history of social work is replete with religious organizations that were the early founders of social work and prayed for, with, and over clients as a matter of course. However, as secular and governmental social service agencies assumed a greater share of society’s burden of need issues of religious freedom and separation of church and state began to crop up.

Only because it is GVT’s business to provide technology services to the world of social services have we hesitated in the past to promote the central role that technology plays in the delivery of services to the vulnerable populations social workers serve. It has always felt a little too self-serving.

However, in the past fifteen years, technology has evolved from being one of the tools social workers use to what can only be described as the “heart of the matter”.

A surgeon and his scalpel are more than a doctor holding an instrument. They are a functional unit that can only perform their work in unison.