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- Need Assessment in sociology 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 service
Needs Assessment
Individuals receiving cancer treatments at a non-profit cancer center were assessed for whether a Spanishspeaking support group would be beneficial for identified patients and their families. Spanish-speaking
patients were provided a short questionnaire in their native language identifying their interest and
availability for this novel group. The cancer center has several support groups that provide psychosocial
support to its patients. All groups are in English, which creates a barrier for 25% of the patient population
who are Spanish-speaking and would like to participate in a cancer support group. Additional key
stakeholders will be invited to a community roundtable to discuss how best to support Spanish-speaking
patients with cancer in the community. Evidence-based research on the use of support groups with Spanishspeaking participants will be evaluated.
Sources of Information
A needs assessment requires considering client needs to ensure the program will be successful and useful to
those it seeks to help (Dudley, 2020). Collecting quantitative data by administering a questionnaire to
potential clients will be important to understand if a Spanish-speaking support group will be supported in the
community. Need Assessment in sociology
Tutty et al. (2010) reported needs assessments often use sources from three groups: target group, community
leaders or service providers, and relevant members in a community. For the needs assessment, other
stakeholders or key informants that will be included will be the board of directors, key employees,
volunteers, and outside referring physicians. The board of directors will help provide overall funding and
direction and key employees, volunteers, and outside referring physicians may have valuable insight and
work closely with the target population. A benefit of using key informants is due to their extensive
knowledge of services in the community that may not be identified by clients (Tutty et al., 2010). Yegetis and colleagues (as cited by Tutty et al., 2010) proposed using three or more sources (triangulation) to collect
credible, unbiased data for a needs assessment. Healthcare professionals who are interviewed may have
different perspectives than clients and discussing the differences may be valuable to learn more about this unique population. Utilizing evidence-based research on the effectiveness of support groups for Spanishspeaking patients will help to justify creating a new group and add credibility to garnering support from keystakeholders. Need Assessment in sociology