Human Services Degrees

A degree in human services provides graduates with the skills and knowledge to provide a vast number of services to others. If your career goals involve helping others to achieve their goals, then a human services program could very well take you to where you want to be. Human services degrees provide the training to work in a variety of job settings, including:

• Nutrition Counseling Clinics
• Diet & Fitness Centers
• Eating Disorder/Behavioral Disorder Clinics
• Community Health Clinics
• Drug & Alcohol Treatment Centers
• Long-Term Care/Retirement/Assisted Living Facilities
• Social Service Agencies
• Welfare Agencies
• Mental Health Agencies

If you are interested in any of these career s, a degree in human services may be right for you. Nutritionist World provides the information needed for those that are interested in nutrition, counseling and many other types of health and nutrition services. Review the programs that look right for you and request information from as many as you would like.

Nutrition Counseling

Nutritional counseling consists of the assessment of dietary intake and the identification of areas where change or additional attention is needed. A nutritional counselor can be any number of nutrition professionals, including registered dietitians, certified nutritionists, clinical nutritionists, public health specialists, sports nutritionists, fitness specialists and more. The primary duties of a nutritional counselor are to diagnose any problems and/or areas for improvement, supply necessary information and education material and to provide ongoing support for each patient throughout treatment, assisting in dietary changes and ensuring that treatment is maintained.

The primary goal of any nutrition counselor is to make and maintain necessary dietary and fitness advice. Moreover, many patients of nutrition counselors are not just trying to lose weight. Many have illnesses such as cancer or diabetes, while many others face drug and alcohol addictions. Another large group of nutrition counseling patients face eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia. Over, nutrition counselors treat a very wide variety of patients and different ailments.

Nutrition counselors work with many other health care providers including doctors, nurses, long term care providers, psychology professionals, health and nutrition educators and more to identify changes needed to improve the lives of their patients. The following areas of study are used by nearly nutrition counselors throughout their assessment and treatment of patients:

• Assessment of Dietary Habits
• Body Weight & Body Mass Index Assessment
• Identification of Changes Needed & Changes Possible
• Identification of Any & Barriers to Change
• Identification & Setting of Goals
• Creation of Support System
• Maintenance of Changes & Continued Treatment

Associates/Bachelors/Masters Degrees In Human Services A degree in human services provides the tools and knowledge to help others with a wide variety of issues. A well-rounded counselor will have learned a deal about a large number of issues, as defined by a number of classes required for nearly degree programs. A list of classes genery required for a degree in human services is listed below:

• Psychology
• Counseling
• Eating Disorders
• Family/Couples/Marriage
• Individual & Groups
• Alcohol and Drug Addictions/Substance Abuse
• Diet/Nutrition & Fitness
• Loss & Grief
• Rehabilitation Services
• Advocacy
• Case Management
• Crisis Intervention

Human Services Skills

Interpersonal skills are paramount in any counseling and human services position. Beyond this, written communication skills are also immensely important, including report writing and note taking. A human services professional such as a nutritional or dietetic counselor must learn to complete everyday tasks including the choosing and attracting of clients, assessing their clients health, behavior and needs, identifying and developing a plan to treat each patient and the methods to implement each plan. The ability to treat patients in a counseling environment includes skills involved in analysis, decision-making, research, clinical testing, and problem solving abilities.

Human Services Salary and Career Outlook

Human services careers f under the counseling and treatment divisions of the health care industry. While the entire industry projects double digit percentage growth over the coming decade, human services careers including nutrition counseling, dietetic counseling and eating disorder counseling are projected to grow even faster. The most common positions for graduates of a degree program in human services in 2009 including the following:

• Social Workers
• Community Support Workers
• Mental Health Counselors (Including eating disorders)
• Day Care Providers
• Community Activists
• Child Care

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment for graduates with a degree in human services will continue to rise through 2018, while opportunities for those with master’s degrees and higher will be even better. There is an abundance of different types of counselors in the human services realm. However, those who work with nutrition, dietetics, eating disorder, fitness and other various types of naturopathic and nutritional health care can expect higher than average salaries in relation to the national averages in the US and Canada. A list of average salaries provided by the BLS in 2010, although quite general, is listed below.