Chapter 1 THE CHANGING NATURE OF HUMAN SERVICES AND SUPERVISION

Demographic, economic, political, technological, social, cultural, and programmatic forces are changing human services and human service organizations in the 21st century (Cohen & Cohen, 2000). The delivery of human services has been dramatically affected and, in some cases, threatened by significant legislative initiatives, modernization of organizational structures, interagency collaboration and mergers, increased service demands, heightened competition among agencies for resources and skilled workers, increased emphasis on performance outcomes to promote cost-effective and cost-efficient services, and work-life interference and burnout (Bruce & Austin, 2000; Hopkins & Hyde, 2002; Martin, 2000; Menefee, 2000; Munson, 1997; Patti, 2000; Perlmutter, Bailey, & Netting, 2001; Shin & McClomb, 1998). Scholars and practitioners agree that social problems have become more complex and intractable, making them more difficult to address in an environment of cost containment strategies. Sowers & Ellis (2001) argue that the three primary issues affecting direct practice in the human services are diversity, technology, and managed care. The growth of populations of color, immigrants, the elderly, and people with disabilities presents unique challenges to human service agencies, including changing the types of services offered, retraining of staff, and overcoming obstacles to communication and collaboration. Technological advances that have brought about changes in how information is collected, stored, and provided offer yet another challenge for human services in developing and negotiating standardized, shared client databases. Finally, changes brought about by managed care or behavioral health organizations have had a profound effect on how human service practitioners deliver services. Other researchers have also noted the significant impact of managed care on human service delivery. For example, Munson (1997) reports that managed cost organizations (in contrast to managed care organizations) have emerged as the “chief administrators of mental health services” and that practitioners will, increasingly, need to adopt a market orientation. Indeed, in a study of the current work experiences of direct service practitioners across fields of practice, Franklin (2001) found that (a) practitioners work in a “market-driven, business-oriented, service delivery system” (p. 235); (b) the human service industry has “restructured” itself to be more “multidisciplinary, inter-professional and profit-driven” (p. 236); and (c) practitioners need to demonstrate that they can “effectively and efficiently resolve human problems”