Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery

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 todays 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.