1st Edition

Human Services Online A New Arena for Service Delivery

By Jerry Finn, Gary Holden Copyright 2000
    312 Pages
    by CRC Press

    324 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Will your agency or students have the training to use the Internet in practice?

    Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery focuses on ways that Human Services are using the Internet for service delivery, community education, collaboration, advocacy, social change, and resource development. This valuable book highlights the array of innovative services now being offered on the Internet and provides guidelines and cautions for human service professionals in using the Internet to enhance their services.

    Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery provides much-needed research and empirical evaluation related to human service online activities and points to areas where future research efforts should be directed. The book describes and evaluates cutting-edge Internet-based services, ethical and legal threats to agencies and consumers that may result from online activities, and theoretical discussions of issues that impact human services as consumers and human service agencies increasingly come online.

    Topics addressed in Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery include:

    • online therapy/counseling
    • online fundraising
    • online recruitment of volunteers and virtual volunteer programs
    • online consultation, continuing education, and training
    • ethical, legal, and liability issues related to Web sites and online support
    • online support groups and self-help
    • online advocacy and activism
    • promoting access for under-represented populations
    • use of the Internet to impact specific social problems such as domestic violence or HIV/AIDS
    Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery provides guidelines and specific suggestions for agencies considering developing online services. The book examines model programs and their effectiveness so that other agencies can replicate them in their own areas, describes cutting-edge online services that today's human services students will need to be aware of as they enter the job market, and provides information for agencies that will enhance their ability to solicit volunteers and contributions on the Internet.

    Contents
    • Introduction: Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery
    • The HIV Cybermail: A Regional Cybernetwork of HIV Services
    • The Effects of a Computer Network on Pediatric Pain and Anxiety
    • Changing Practices with Children and Families in North Carolina: Using Technology to Facilitate Collaboration and Training
    • The Requirements of Community: An Online Survey of the Social Work Access Network (SWAN)
    • A Survey of Domestic Violence Organizations on the World Wide Web
    • Computer Technology Utilization and Community-Based AIDS Organizations
    • Virtual Volunteering: Online Volunteers Providing Assistance to Human Services Agencies
    • Online Fundraising in the Human Services
    • Liability and the Internet: Risks and Recommendations for Social Work Practice
    • INTERNET: A Framework for Analyzing Online Human Service Practices
    • The Community Tool Box: Using the Internet to Support the Work of Community Health and Development
    • Promoting Computer-Mediated Communications in Community Coalitions
    • Offering Social Support via the Internet: A Case Study of an Online Support Group for Social Workers
    • The Nature and Prevention of Harm in Technology-Mediated Self-Help Settings: Three Exemplars
    • Conclusion
    • Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Jerry Finn, Gary Holden