The Fourth Edition of this remarkable book inspires students to become helping professionals, while grounding them in the realities they will face. The book's multidisciplinary approach to the field of human services gives students an overview of the helping field, of the groups of people who get help from human services, of the programs available to them, and of the practical skills workers can employ. Based on the authors' belief that a humanistic perspective combined with a realistic awareness of pressing social problems provides the best foundation for creative and effective helping, this book provides a comprehensive survey of what the human services field has become and what it takes to be a human services worker.