Generate some suggestions for how you can work as a change agent in your community to resolve HIV problem

During this Seminar, you will explore some of the issues involved in coordinating services between agencies. All human service professionals face these issues at some point, either while working in direct service or supervisory positions.

Scenario #1: HIV Patients and Service Coordination

Imagine that you work for the public health department in client service coordination. Your chief responsibility is to help HIV positive patients get connected to services. However, while your town has ample services, the local public transportation system does not offer service to those areas. Further, many of your clients require methadone treatments (former heroin addicts), but there is no clinic within town limits.

1. Generate some suggestions for how you can work as a change agent in your community to resolve this problem.
2. What other service might your clients need?
3. If you could create your own HIV treatment agency, offering full services to clients, what services would you offer and why?

Scenario #2: Mental Health Crisis

Your town has one major mental health provider who has been providing outpatient and residential service for years. The problem is that your town does not have a crisis unit. You work for the local suicide hotline, which handles thousands of calls a year, of which a few hundred are suicide threats. Currently, the protocol is to call the police who then transport the client two towns away to the nearest crisis center. Too often, this creates problems for the clients and their families because of the distance.

Your supervisor has asked you to serve on a task force to investigate the feasibility of creating a partnership with area agencies to try to solve the problem of what to do with clients experiencing a mental crisis.

1. What steps should you and the members of the task force take to solve this problem?
2. What are some creative solutions that would include the town’s substance abuse agency, homeless shelter, domestic violence shelter, and police?

Option 2: Complete the Option 2 written assignment by responding to the Seminar topics. Your responses should be composed in complete sentences and paragraphs and be 300-400 words in length. You should create your Seminar responses in MS Word making sure to follow APA format and cite all references used. Save your answers and submit them to the Unit 6: Seminar Dropbox.

Be sure to complete all questions to earn your Seminar points. You are also strongly encouraged to review the Seminar transcript for gain the full educational benefit intended.