The Human Service Center

Case Management Agency

An organization that is responsible for providing case management services. The agency provides services which assist an individual in gaining access to needed medical, social, educational, and/or other services. Case management services may be used to locate, coordinate, and monitor necessary appropriate services. It may be used to encourage the use of cost-effective medical care by referrals to appropriate providers and to discourage over utilization of costly services. Case management may also serve to provide necessary coordination of non-medical services such as vocational rehabilitation, education, employment, when the services provided enable the individual to function at the highest level.

Community / Behavioral Health Agency

A private or public agency usually under local government jurisdiction, responsible for assuring the delivery of community based mental health, intellectual disabilities, substance abuse and/or behavioral health services to individuals with those disabilities. Services may range from companion care, respite, transportation, community integration, crisis intervention and stabilization, supported employment, day support, prevocational services, residential support, therapeutic and supportive consultation, environmental modifications, intensive in-home therapy and day treatment, in addition to traditional mental health and behavioral treatment.

Speech-Language Pathology

The Human Service Center is a Speech-Language Pathology practice in Rhinelander, WI with healthcare providers who have special training and skill in preventing, assessing, diagnosing, and treating speech, language, cognitive communication, and swallowing disorders arising from illness, injury, deficiency, or congenital birth defect. Speech-Language Pathologists at The Human Service Center perform testing, evaluation, and treatment of disorders relating to how patients form words, communicate, and process the speech of others. Speech-Language Pathology is a medical specialty that deals with disorders related to how patients form words, speak, and understand what others are saying to them. Significant diseases and conditions treated at Speech-Language Pathology practices include speech disorders like stuttering and dysarthia, language disorders like articulation and phonological processing disorders, social communication disorders, cognitive-communication disorders, voice disorders, and swallowing disorders that may arise from conditions like stroke, dementia, brain injury, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease, autism, hearing loss, or congenital birth defects. Medical tests, procedures and therapies provided by Speech-Language Pathology practices include speech and language assessment, hearing assessment, developing treatment plans based on assessment and test results, developing communications strategies for patients and caregivers, working with patients to achieve communication goals, and providing patient and parent education.

The speech-language pathologist is the professional who engages in clinical services, prevention, advocacy, education, administration, and research in the areas of communication and swallowing across the life span from infancy through geriatrics. Speech-language pathologists address typical and atypical impairments and disorders related to communication and swallowing in the areas of speech sound production, resonance, voice, fluency, language (comprehension and expression), cognition, and feeding and swallowing.

Occupational Therapy

The Human Service Center is an Occupational Therapy practice in Rhinelander, WI with healthcare providers who have special training and skill in holistically treating injured, ill, or disabled patients through therapeutic activities that help them develop, recover, improve, and maintain the skills needed for daily living and working. Occupational Therapists at The Human Service Center perform rehabilitation of patients with mental, emotional, and physical disabilities by planning and administering medically prescribed occupational therapy. Occupational Therapy is physiological treatment of patients recuperating from physical or mental illness that encourages rehabilitation through the performance of activities required in daily life. Significant diseases and conditions treated at Occupational Therapy practices include work related upper extremity injuries, amputees and people with special prosthetics, stroke or heart attack victims, arthritis, multiple sclerosis or permanent disabilities patients, patients with head injuries and mental disabilities, severe burn and spinal cord trauma patients. Medical tests, procedures and therapies provided by Occupational Therapy practices include individualized evaluation to determine the patient's goals; customized intervention to improve the patient's ability to perform daily activities, and outcome evaluation to ensure that the goals are being met and/or intervention plan adjusted.

An occupational therapist is a person who has graduated from an entry-level occupational therapy program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) or predecessor organizations, or approved by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), or an equivalent international occupational therapy education program; has successfully completed a period of supervised fieldwork experience required by the occupational therapy program; has passed a nationally recognized entry-level examination for occupational therapists, and fulfills state requirements for licensure, certification, or registration. An occupational therapist provides interventions based on evaluation and which emphasize the therapeutic use of everyday life activities (i.e., occupations) with individuals or groups for the purpose of facilitating participation in roles and situations and in home, school, workplace, community and other settings. Occupational therapy services are provided for the purpose of promoting health and wellness and are provided to those who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction. Occupational therapists address the physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, and other aspects of occupational performance in a variety of contexts to support engagement in everyday life activities that affect health, well-being, and quality of life.