Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 Health and Human Service: Annotated Bibliography Health & Human Services Capstone May 25, 2020 Health and Human Service: Annotated Bibliography Greene, R. (2017). Human behavior theory and social work practice. Routledge. This book examines various human behavior theories. The historical context, philosophical roots, and assumptions of each theory are discussed. The book offers perspective on the interactions between people and social systems. The application of each theory by social workers in shaping their social work practices is examined, and the relationship between each theory and professional social work practice established. The book further explores each theory’s challenges and limitations and addresses how each theory offers a framework for social work practice, provides an understanding of social system behaviors, implications of each theory for social work practice strategies and interventions, and the role of social workers as a change agent as provided by each theory. The theoretical approaches examined in this book offer social workers ground for basing their practice and interventions as they seek to enhance societal conditions and improve the social functioning of and between social groups in various settings.  The book is relevant to my paper because it provides a theoretical ground on understanding the challenges health and human services professionals face in delivering services to homeless people. A more relevant theory that relates to my paper is system theory. Various interactions in an environment introduce challenges that make the work of health and human service professionals challenging. Based on system theory, society is a complex arrangement of various components that influence behavior. Various issues are connected, giving rise to challenges that the health and human services professionals face in their practice. This book is important in examining how components in society interact to give rise to these challenges.  Sherraden, M. S., Birkenmaier, J., & Collins, J. M. (2019). Financial Capability for All: Training Human Service Professionals to Work with Vulnerable Families. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 53(3), 869-876. This article examines the potential for health and human services practitioners to improve vulnerable populations’ financial capabilities. The article points out that health and human service practitioners work with individuals who are financially vulnerable, and they are in a position to offer basic financial support and guidance to these people. The article explores training as an approach to enable these practitioners to build the financial capabilities of the vulnerable populations they serve. Education and training in human development, societal dynamics, and social policy prepare health and human services practitioners to be key players in coming up with solu.

1. Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2
Health and Human Service: Annotated Bibliography
Health & Human Services Capstone
May 25, 2020
Health and Human Service: Annotated Bibliography
Greene, R. (2017). Human behavior theory and social work
practice. Routledge.
This book examines various human behavior theories. The
historical context, philosophical roots, and assumptions of each
theory are discussed. The book offers perspective on the

2. interactions between people and social systems. The application
of each theory by social workers in shaping their social work
practices is examined, and the relationship between each theory
and professional social work practice established. The book
further explores each theory’s challenges and limitations and
addresses how each theory offers a framework for social work
practice, provides an understanding of social system behaviors,
implications of each theory for social work practice strategies
and interventions, and the role of social workers as a change
agent as provided by each theory. The theoretical approaches
examined in this book offer social workers ground for basing
their practice and interventions as they seek to enhance societal
conditions and improve the social functioning of and between
social groups in various settings.
The book is relevant to my paper because it provides a
theoretical ground on understanding the challenges health and
human services professionals face in delivering services to
homeless people. A more relevant theory that relates to my
paper is system theory. Various interactions in an environment
introduce challenges that make the work of health and human
service professionals challenging. Based on system theory,
society is a complex arrangement of various components that
influence behavior. Various issues are connected, giving rise to
challenges that the health and human services professionals face
in their practice. This book is important in examining how
components in society interact to give rise to these challenges.
Sherraden, M. S., Birkenmaier, J., & Collins, J. M. (2019).
Financial Capability for All: Training Human Service
Professionals to Work with Vulnerable Families. Journal of
Consumer Affairs, 53(3), 869-876.
This article examines the potential for health and human
services practitioners to improve vulnerable populations’
financial capabilities. The article points out that health and
human service practitioners work with individuals who are
financially vulnerable, and they are in a position to offer basic
financial support and guidance to these people. The article

3. explores training as an approach to enable these practitioners to
build the financial capabilities of the vulnerable populations
they serve. Education and training in human development,
societal dynamics, and social policy prepare health and human
services practitioners to be key players in coming up with
solutions to financially vulnerable individuals. The article
proposes additional resources to the curriculum, including
assessment models and practice tools, to enhance the capacities
of these professionals to serve financially vulnerable
populations. The article concludes and recommends the
development of degree programs and continuing education in
financial capabilities to enable the health and human services
practitioners to offer better service and enhance the wellbeing
of financially vulnerable populations.
This article is relevant to my paper, presenting two challenges
that health and human services professionals face, including the
inadequate capacity to serve financially vulnerable populations,
and locating the homeless people. The homeless are financially
vulnerable, and these professionals do not have adequate
capacities to build the financial capabilities of the vulnerable
populations they serve. Another challenge, as pointed out in this
article, is locating homeless people since the homeless shelter at
night and leave in the morning, making it hard for health and
human health services to locate these people to offer them
services. Therefore, this article is important in examining my
topic.
Wirth, T., Mette, J., Prill, J., Harth, V., & Nienhaus, A. (2019).
Working conditions, mental health, and coping of staff in social
work with refugees and homeless individuals: A scoping
review. Health & social care in the community, 27(4), e257-
e269.
This article reviews twenty-five studies to establish job
demands, psychological health issues, resources, coping
interventions, and needs of social workers. The article identifies
job demands, including the system of bureaucracy, high
caseloads, the suffering of the clients, and little success

4. experiences. The article identified that maintaining professional
boundaries as a challenge, especially working with people the
social worker has a personal relationship with and as a coping
strategy, helping social workers maintain professionalism.
Important job resources identified in this article include support
from the team and getting meaning from work. Social workers
experience mental health problems, and this is associated with
their nature of work with refugees and homeless people. As they
dead with people with serious traumatic experiences and job
demands, these places load on their mental health. The article
concludes and recommends ongoing training, external
counseling, and supervision to help social workers deal with job
demands and mental health problems.
This article is relevant to my paper because it documents
challenges the social workers face work when working with
refugees and homeless people. The article identified job
demands, including the system of bureaucracy, high caseloads,
the suffering of the clients, little success experiences,
maintaining professional boundaries, and mental health
problems as being challenges that social workers face in their
practice. Another challenge mentioned in this article is language
and cultural differences as the refugees and homeless people
come from different cultural backgrounds. Thus, this article is
important to my current topic, challenges health and human
services professionals face in delivering services to homeless
people, by delineating some of these challenges.

5. References
Greene, R. (2017). Human behavior theory and social work
practice. Routledge.
Sherraden, M. S., Birkenmaier, J., & Collins, J. M. (2019).
Financial Capability for All: Training Human Service
Professionals to Work with Vulnerable Families. Journal of
Consumer Affairs, 53(3), 869-876.
Wirth, T., Mette, J., Prill, J., Harth, V., & Nienhaus, A. (2019).
Working conditions, mental health, and coping of staff in social
work with refugees and homeless individuals: A scoping review.
Health & social care in the community, 27(4), e257-e269.
Outline and References
HHS 497: Health & Human Services Capstone
May 9, 2020

6. Health and human service professionals face various challenges
while delivering services to homeless people. This paper covers
the major challenges faced by human service professionals in
delivering services to homeless people such as poor
coordination between the various service providers,
unwillingness of insurance providers to cover homeless people,
language and cultural differences, locating the homeless people
and developing quality relationships with the clients.
1. Locating homeless people.
i. Human service professionals struggle to find the homeless
people.
ii. This is because they do not have a permanent place to live.
iii. They may establish camps in a particular area and move to
another place the next day.
iv. “Homeless shelters are most often night shelters, where
people leave in the morning to do whatever they can manage
and return in the evening when the beds in the shelter open up
again for sleeping” (Sherraden et al, 2019).
2. Lack of coordination amongst services by various
organizations inhibits service delivery to the homeless people.
i. Healthcare professionals are likely to coordinate poorly while
providing services to homeless people.
ii. Just like the general population, homeless people also need
help in seeking medical care and counseling services.
iii. Some healthcare professionals might not have previous
health records of homeless people.
iv. The insurance providers might not be willing to help
homeless people.
3. Language and cultural differences
i. Human service professionals are likely to work with homeless
people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

7. ii. They may not understand the language spoken by people
from various cultural groups.
iii. They may struggle using sign language.
iv. “The need to identify how language diversity affects service
delivery is driven by the changing demographics of the United
States” (Wirth et al, 2019).
4. Establishing quality relationships with the clients.
i. Some homeless people might not be welcoming.
ii. If they do not have a good personality, it becomes more
difficult for human service professions to help them.
iii. Human service professions, however, have to identify the
most appropriate to relate with the clients.
iv. The mental illnesses of homeless people make it difficult for
them to relate with other people well. “National estimates are
that 20 to 25 % of homeless people are mentally ill” (Greene,
2017).
Human service professionals can hire individuals who come
from similar cultural backgrounds to homeless people to
enhance their level of communication. Since housing is a major
problem, human service professionals can push for the
establishment of housing programs for homeless people.
REFERENCES
Greene, R. (2017). Human behavior theory and social work
practice. Routledge.
Sherraden, M. S., Birkenmaier, J., & Collins, J. M. (2019).
Financial Capability for All: Training Human Service
Professionals to Work with Vulnerable Families. Journal of
Consumer Affairs, 53(3), 869-876.
Wirth, T., Mette, J., Prill, J., Harth, V., & Nienhaus, A. (2019).
Working conditions, mental health, and coping of staff in social
work with refugees and homeless individuals: A scoping review.
Health & social care in the community, 27(4), e257-e269.

8. Topic Paper
HHS 497: Health & Human Services Capstone
May 9, 2020
Topic Paper
Major challenges health and human services professionals face
in delivering services to homeless people
The topic selected was the major challenges health and human
services professionals face in delivering services to homeless
people. Housing and homelessness are a persistent topic that
must be mitigated by human service professionals. Housing in
the US is very expensive, and this contributes to homelessness.
The issue affects a lot of people in the US. Homelessness causes
behavioral problems, increased violence, substance abuse, and
low self-esteem. Homeless people are; therefore, likely to need
help in multiple services such as counseling, housing, and
financial aid. Human service professionals face various
challenges while working with homeless people.
First of all, human service professionals struggle to identify the
locations of homeless people. This is because they do not live in
a permanent place. They may establish camps in a particular
area and move to another place the next day. “Homeless shelters
are most often night shelters, where people leave in the morning
to do whatever they can manage and return in the evening when
the beds in the shelter open up again for sleeping” (Sherraden et
al, 2019). Human service professionals only work during the
daytime. It is; therefore, difficult to find homeless people
because they return to their places in the evening or at night.

9. An example of a theoretical perspective that explains the topic
is the systems theory. This theory applies to the topic of
challenges faced by human service professionals because
various interactions in the environment cause them. "Systems
theory in social work is based on the idea that behavior is
influenced by a variety of factors that work together as a
system" (Greene, 2017). The factors that work together include
economic class, the environment, social settings, family, and
friends. These factors may influence how people think and act.
Systems theory provides a complete view of one’s situation in
his/her social environment. It applies to situations in which
various issues are intricately connected. For example, there are
various issues connected to the topic of homelessness and the
seeking of healthcare. “The services needed by homeless people
such as housing, healthcare, and financial aid are provided by
various organizations” (Wirth et al, 2019). Homeless people
might also need counseling services, and this adds to the
number of people required to help them.
A lack of coordination amongst services by various
organizations inhibits service delivery to the homeless people.
Healthcare professionals are likely to coordinate poorly while
providing services to homeless people. For example, they might
not have previous health records of homeless people. This is
because it is difficult for them to access healthcare, and they
might not have sought healthcare services previously. The
insurance providers might not be willing to help homeless
people. Lack of healthcare and insurance cover makes it more
difficult to help those who are homeless when they face various
conditions.
Human service professionals are likely to struggle to work with
homeless people due to the potential differences in their
language and culture. The professionals can, however, hire
people from the same cultures as homeless people to help them
in identifying and solving the problems they face. They must
establish positive relationships with homeless people to make
them comfortable sharing information that will help in

10. diagnosis and treatment. Some homeless people might, however,
have criminal records that make it difficult for human service
professionals to help them.
This project supports what was learned because it covers
various ways in which an issue facing community members
would be resolved. The project also analyzes how one would
interact with community members especially those who are
homeless. It relates to some responsibilities of human service
professionals to the clients such as building client strengths and
responsibilities to the society such as providing services
without discrimination based on one’s culture or race. It also
enables the human service provider to normalize respecting
cultures and beliefs of various people.
Human service professionals can hire individuals who come
from similar cultural backgrounds to homeless people to
enhance their level of communication. Since housing is a major
problem, human service professionals can push for the
establishment of housing programs for homeless people.
References
Greene, R. (2017). Human behavior theory and social work
practice. Routledge.
Sherraden, M. S., Birkenmaier, J., & Collins, J. M. (2019).
Financial Capability for All: Training Human Service
Professionals to Work with Vulnerable Families. Journal of
Consumer Affairs, 53(3), 869-876.
Wirth, T., Mette, J., Prill, J., Harth, V., & Nienhaus, A. (2019).

11. Working conditions, mental health, and coping of staff in social
work with refugees and homeless individuals: A scoping review.
Health & social care in the community, 27(4), e257-e269.