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Needs Assessment in Program Evaluation Week 8: Needs Assessment in Program Evaluation
Assessment is perhaps the most fundamental of all social work activities. It is a process of gathering pertinent information to answer questions about problems, contributions to problems, and potential strengths and assets. At a program-evaluation or program-planning level, a social worker applies the same thoughtful process used in individual assessment but extends or filters it to answer program-level questions.
The purpose of a particular needs assessment will help you determine the types of questions to ask and from whom to gather information. You employ a thinking process similar to that used in your experiences with direct practice assessment. You generate two needs assessment plans this week, one for a program of your choice that meets an unmet need, and the other for a support group for caregivers.
Learning Objectives Needs Assessment in Program Evaluation
Students will:
- Generate a needs assessment plan
- Evaluate needs assessment plans
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
- (For review) Chapter 6, “Needs Assessment” (pp. 115–143)
- Chapter 7, “Crafting Goals and Objectives” (pp. 149–168)
Document: Tutty, L. M., & Rothery, M. A. (2010). Needs assessments. In B. Thyer (Ed.), The handbook of social work research methods (2nd ed.,pp. 149–162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (PDF)
Copyright 2010 by Sage Publications, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Optional Resources
Stewart, K. E., Phillips, M. M., Walker, J. F., Harvey, S. A., & Porter, A. (2011). Social services utilization and need among a community sample of persons living with HIV in the rural south. AIDS Care, 23(3), 340–347.
Note: Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Respond to Colleagues by doing all of the following:
- Indicate strengths of their needs assessment plan that will enable the needs assessments to yield support for the program that they want to develop.
- Offer suggestions to improve the needs assessment plan in areas such as:
- Defining the extent and scope of the need
- Obtaining important information about the target population
- Identifying issues that might affect the target population’s ability to access the program or services Needs Assessment in Program Evaluation
Colleague #1 – Colleague
RE: Discussion – Week 8
Top of Form
Dudley (2020) highlights several methods of conducting needs assessments including administering a questionnaire. Questionnaires are helpful in that they can be used to target a population and assess opinions or needs on a specific topic or situation (Dudley, 2020). One advantage of questionnaires is that they have a low cost, as the can be administered easily (via mail, online, in-person) (Dudley, 2020). They can also be anonymous. A disadvantage is that they often used forced-question methods that don’t allow respondents to elaborate and result in only quantitative data depending on the information included in the assessment (Dudley, 2020). Tutty et al. (2010) also notes the practicality of needs assessment questionnaires, but goes further to highlight “key informants.” Key informants are those populations a researcher is looking to study or assess needs for (Tutty et al., 2010). Some key informants might include clients, community leaders, and/or service providers (Tutty et al., 2010).
According to Alegría et al (2012), school-based mental health partnerships have increased as the number of children needing mental/behavioral health services has increased too. However, little research is known on the impact of these partnerships and how processes within the partnerships have worked (Alegría et al., 2012). Research on help seeking behaviors/symptoms and barriers to treatment have been researched and indicate that stigma, scheduling, cost, and lack of confidentiality are barriers (Alegría et al., 2012). Little research has been done on the methods of connecting families to mental health services through schools. Santor et al. (2007) notes the lack of knowledge for school staff on mental health symptoms in children, mental health services available, and ways to refer. According to youth in one study by Defosset et al. (2017), school staff had “contentious relationships” with students which influenced students’ likelihood to seek support.
In conducting a needs assessment for school-based mental health partnerships, I would want to explore the referral processes in Cincinnati Public Schools. I would like to collected quantitative date on the number of children referred each year, the type of mental health symptoms, and demographic information related to age, race, and gender. Alegría et al. (2012) notes the tendency for school staff to refer students of particular races and genders more often than others with the same presenting symptoms. Then, I would collect qualitative data to determine the level of understanding school staff has in noting mental health symptoms that warrant mental health services and their level of understanding in the referral process. I would conduct this needs assessment using a questionnaire that would be sent electronically via email to all CPS staff, which can be completed anonymously. The key informants” would be Cincinnati Public School staff, since they are the main sources of referrals in school-based partnerships. Because the questionnaire would be anonymous, school staff might answer more honestly. Additionally, the questionnaire would offer a place to elaborate on questions so they don’t feel forced into an answer and so more data can be gathered (Dudley, 2020).
References
Alegría, M., Lin, J. Y., Green, J. G., Sampson, N. A., Gruber, M. J., & Kessler, R. C. (2012). Role of referrals in mental health service disparities for racial and ethnic minority youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(7), 703–711.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2012.05.005
DeFosset, A. R., Gase, L. N., Ijadi-Maghsoodi, R., & Kuo, T. (2017). Youth descriptions of mental health needs and experiences with school-based services: Identifying ways to meet the needs of underserved adolescents. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 28(3), 1191.
Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
Santor, D. A., Poulin, C., LeBlanc, J. C., & Kusumakar, V. (2007). Facilitating help seeking behavior and referrals for mental health difficulties in school aged boys and girls: A school-based intervention. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(6), 741-752.
Tutty, L. M., & Rothery, M. A. (2010). Needs assessments. In B. Thyer (Ed.), The handbook of social work research methods (2nd ed.,pp. 149–162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Needs Assessment in Program Evaluation