By Gareth Morgan, Vice-Chair of husITa. Almost exactly 30 years ago, the means tested benefit system in the UK underwent a massive change. In April 1988 the previous Supplementary Benefit and associated schemes changed overnight to one called Income Support with, again, other linked ‘income -related‘ schemes. I said overnight, and it was overnight, and it all went very…
Best Human Services App Idea 2018
husITa is proud to announce our 2018 competition for the award of Best Human Services App Idea. This award is designed to encourage and support the development of innovative ideas for effective human service applications. Our Best App Award is an annual event: in one year the award will be for the best human services app; the next for the…
Risk prediction tools in child welfare contexts: the devil in the detail
This is a guest blog post by Emily Keddell, Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Emily has published and blogged about the New Zealand government’s attempts to pilot predictive risk modelling in child protection services. She is a member of the Reimagining Social Work collective. Emily is happy to respond to any questions or comments on…
Announcing the husITa track at SWSD 2018 in Dublin
We are delighted to announce the husITa human service technology track at the Social Work, Education and Social Development 2018 Conference to be held in Dublin from the 4th to the 7th of July 2018. This important international conference is being organised on behalf of the International Federation of Social Workers, the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the…
Results of 2017 elections to husITa board
The husITa board approved the results of the 2017 husITa ballot, many thanks to the members of our mailing list who selected seven from a slate of ten excellent nominees.
Nominate and vote for six new members of the husITa Board
Election of six new members to the Board of husITa husITa are currently seeking six new members for the husITa board and we invite you to nominate yourself, or to nominate a person whose permission you have secured. The term of office is normally for three years. Board meetings are normally held four times each year and take place using Loomio an…
A message from the Best App Award winners
In this short video the winners of the Best Human Services App 2017 explain how they worked together to create their winning app, the wide impact it has had and their plans for future development. Child development Apps 1-3 were developed by Learning Pool in collaboration with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and the content was authored and updated by Ulster University and…
Harnessing social media for social work research and scholarship
The blog post was written by Laurel Hitchcock (University of Alabama, Birmingham) and Melanie Sage (University at Buffalo). In it we describe our visit with the College of Social Work at the Ohio State University in August 2017, where we talked about how social work faculty can harness technology for their social work scholarship. We also interviewed two of our OSU Social Work…
husITa celebrates its thirtieth anniversary
Thirty years ago – in Birmingham, England – the first husITa international conference was co-chaired by Walter LaMendola (University of Denver) and Stuart Toole (Birmingham Polytechnic). Over three days, from the 8th till the 10th of September 1987, several hundred delegates from 17 countries participated in over 100 human service technology presentations.
The Journal of Technology in Human Services turns a new page
A journal update by Lauri Goldkind (Editor-in-Chief) and Chitat Chan (Associate Editor-in-Chief) We are happy to be appointed as the new Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Technology in Human Services (JTHS). While we are sure that the journal will continue to lead the field in technology in human services, we would like to let you know that…