The verbal helping skills of trained and untrained human service paraprofessionals

Abstract

The verbal helping skills of human service paraprofessionals in a youth service agency were studied. Workers who had previously completed a l O-week systematic training program in basic helping skills were compared to untrained volunteer staff. Using simulated helping interviews, it was found that training made a significant impact on trainees' verbal helping responses. Skill level was maintained at a 2-month follow-up for certain responses whereas others returned to pretraining levels. Trainees were found to use significantly more "helpful" responses than volunteers. The need for training even carefully selected paraprofessionals is discussed. The predominance of paraprofessionals and nonprofessionals in human service settings raises many issues for program development and evaluation. One major area of concern is training. Specifically, what kind of preparation should these personnel have if they are to be the direct service providers? There appears to be agreement that human service workers should be competent in basic helping skills, although proponents of different training programs define these requisite