This course provides an overview of the historical development of human services and an introduction to the many settings, roles, and functions of the human services professional. Students gain an understanding of the knowledge and skills needed to help support others toward living a more fulfilling life, with particular attention given to behavioral and social theories, common social problems, service delivery systems, ethical behavior, and personal values.
History as context for the modern profession
The course grounds its introduction to human services in the field's genuine historical development, helping students understand why current service delivery systems and ethical standards developed the way they did.
A foundation the rest of the HSE curriculum builds on
HSE-101 functions as the field's required gatekeeper course, explicitly named as a prerequisite for HSE-210, HSE-315, and HSE-325 — its coverage of behavioral theories, service delivery systems, and ethics is the genuine foundation later courses assume students already have.
Key topics in HSE101
- Historical development of human services
- Settings, roles, and functions of human services professionals
- Behavioral and social theories
- Common social problems
- Service delivery systems
- Ethical behavior and personal values
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Worked example: history explaining today's service systems
- Ahistorical view: Learning current service delivery systems as if they simply always existed this way
- HSE-101's approach: Tracing how the historical development of the human services field shaped today's roles, ethics, and delivery systems
- Lesson: HSE-101 teaches that understanding this history gives genuine context for why the profession operates the way it does today
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Frequently asked questions
HSE-101 establishes foundational knowledge — behavioral and social theories, service delivery systems, and core ethical principles — that later, more specialized courses genuinely assume students already possess, since courses on healthcare systems, trauma, or child welfare ethics all build on this baseline understanding of what the human services profession does and how it operates. Requiring HSE-101 first ensures students enter specialized coursework with the shared foundational vocabulary and framework the rest of the curriculum depends on.
Understanding how the human services field evolved historically — from earlier, less formalized helping traditions to today's structured, ethics-governed profession — helps students recognize that current service delivery systems and ethical standards emerged from real historical development, not from an arbitrary or timeless set of rules. HSE-101 includes this history because it gives students genuine context for why the profession's current standards and structures exist as they do.