Needs Assessment Design - Essay Example

DESIGNING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS Reasons for conducting Needs assessments: Needs assessments are also called feasibility assessments/front –end analysis/ or strength assessments. They are carried out before designing the program. Since the early 1970s it has been a requirement that any program proposal have a needs assessment which will outline in a systematic and objective way reasons for the programs. Royse and Thyer (1996) identify five reasons why needs assessments must be done. To determine: whether services exist in the community whether they are enough clients who uses existing services what barriers prevent clients form accessing services the existence of an ongoing problem Determining If Services Exist In the Community To see if a program or intervention exists in your area you can network, use the internet or a directory of social service agencies and programs in your area. Determining Whether There Are Enough Clients Your clients may express the need for a particular service but they may not form a number big enough to justify a new program. The need should be systemically documented. Singer, Bussey, Song and Lunghofer (1995) investigated the psychological issues of women serving time in jail. The study involved interviewing 201 randomly selected female inmates incarcerated at a municipal jail to establish the needs of this population. Of the women, 64 % were in the clinical range for mental health problems, 83 % were in the substance abuse range, and 81% had been sexually victimized at some time in their lives. The authors made nine recommendations for services, including drug and alcohol treatment services, mental health services, education on sexually transmitted disease, medical services, dental services, and parenting education (73). Determining Who Uses Existing Services Some services exist but may not be used because clients may think they are ineligible or not have heard of it. Barnes, Given, and Given (1995) examined use of services by daughters giving care to their elderly parents. The researchers compared employed daughters, daughters who were never employed while caregivers, and daughters who ended their employment to continue care giving. The authors found that although all the caregivers could benefit from social work services, special attention is required for employed daughters, particularly those who are conflicted about their employment and care giving roles (74). Determining What Barriers Prevent Clients from Accessing Services Some clients don’t use services even with referral from social workers. If barriers are identified the programs can be redesigned or added. Rittner and Kirk (1995) carried out a survey of low-income, elderly people who attended daytime meal programs. The authors examined socio-cultural and quality of life variables as they affected use of health care and transportation services. Most of the respondents self-reported their health as poor or very poor, and more than half had no medical care during the preceding six months. Social isolation from family and support systems exacerbated problems with transportation. Most relied on public transportation to gain access to health care services, but expressed fear in using this form of transportation (74). Documenting the Existence of an Ongoing Social Problem This is done to find out what problems people have which is a more important question than how many need a service. It will focus on the nature of the problem. Strober (1994) investigated the factors involved in the acculturation of Cambodian refugees in Los Angeles. Professionals involved in refugees’ services noted that Cambodian refugees were more severely psychologically stressed and slower to acculturate than other groups. The findings indicted that their adjustment difficulties were related to severe psychological distress. The Cambodian families and ethnic communities were ineffective at reducing this psychological distress, which the author suggested could be explained by the absence of a pre-existing Cambodian community and the refugees’ discomfort with existing culturally unfamiliar community agencies. (Note that this study also identified some barriers to existing service use) The author suggested that these refuges needed services that support family strengths, stronger worker –client bonds through more reciprocal interaction between the two, and greater worker community involvement (75). TYPES OF DESIGNS FOR NEEDS ASSESSMENTS A need assessment is essentially a descriptive survey and need not have explanatory design as in program evaluations. The first step is to determine why the study is being conducted. Almost all surveys rely on a probability sample from which generalizations can be drawn and so do needs assessments. Because needs assessments are meant to show the need for services it is very important that the sample is chosen carefully. These questions are important in deciding on the design type for a needs assessment whose need is being assessed Who will have input into the design of the needs assessment? When will the needs assessment be carried out? What type of understanding of the need is required? What level of description is useful? Whose need is being assessed? Answering this question determines who will be selected as participants. There are four levels that can be studied: individual, organizational, community and societal. Most needs assessments are about individual needs like food, shelter and social services. Some are about organizational needs like technical assistance or training. Rycraft (1994) investigated factors that may influence some caseworkers to continue employment in public child welfare when so many are leaving. From interviews with 23 caseworkers, four factors of retention emerged: mission, goodness of fit, supervision, and investment (76). Or it could be about community e.g. the need for neighbourhood development services like a youth program. Societal needs are broader like changes in social security. Who will have input into the design of the needs assessment? Marlow stresses the need for participatory or action research where participants are involved in the study design and ensures their ownership of the results. This kind of approach; involving the participants will lead to results with greater validity and relevance and that are more likely to be heard. Fig 5.1 Needs assessments questions Do services exist? Are there enough clients for anew program? Who uses existing services? What barriers prevent clients from accessing existing services? What are the ongoing social problems? METHOD/DESIGN Whose need? Individual, organization, community, or society Who has input? Participatory needs assessment When? Cross-sectional or longitudinal What type of understanding? Qualitative or quantitative What level of description? Descriptive or explanatory Watt (1998) described work that was completed at the first Baltic-Polish Conference on Social Work Education in Lithuania in 1994. The conference participants consisted of indigenous social work educators, social work students, and professional social world educators who discussed the need for improved social work education programs in the Baltic States and Poland. Social work students were purposely invited to the conference to encourage faculty –student collegiality, and their participation in the conference was instrumental in the direction taken by the conference. Results indicated that the newly developed social work programs in the Baltic States and Poland were further along toward their goals of professional awareness, collegiality, and theory-practice interface than was evident before the conference (78). When will the needs assessment be carried out? There are two choices available for the timing of the data collection 1. Cross –sectional design Here data is collected only once per participant ex 78 2 Longitudinal designs The data is collected more than once over an extended period. There are three types of this design a) trend designs b) cohort c) panel Trend studies: Multiple samplings from the same group are taken over months or years to check for changes e.g. to check how the characteristics of the clients or their problems served by a program have changed over time. This can lead to program focus change. Caputo (1995) compared various measures of African American and white family income inequality and poverty for the periods 1969-1980 and 1981-1992(79). Cohort studies: A specific group is the target and study checks for changes in it over time. The group usually has a common characteristic usually age. E.g. in 1985 families with parents in early twenties were interviewed 1990 families with parents in their late twenties were interviewed 1995 families with parents in their early thirties Panel studies: The same group is studied over time e.g. “graduates of a B.S.W program might be asked about their further education needs two, four, and six years after graduation. In the cohort example above, it would also be possible that the same families could be studied over a period of ten years” Robertson (1997) used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to compare the earnings and work efforts of young non-residential fathers, residential fathers, and men without children. The NLSY was a panel study of 12, 68 people, 6,403 men and 6,283 women, ages 14- 21 in 1979.In 1990 there were 5,112 respondents. These were the subjects in the Robertson study. The study found that non residential fathers earned less and worked fewer hours than the other groups, generally as a result of lower levels of education and job training (79). What type of understanding of the needs is required? The approach to the research needs to be decided between positivist and interpretist. Because needs assessments need to provide results that will withstand critical review it often adopts the positivists approach. For this it usually collects new data (from questionnaires) or from secondary or existing data e.g. from government of nongovernmental sources. But to gain a deeper understanding of the need an interpretist approach is used. The interpretive approach will provided more qualitative data e.g. to find out what parents of mentally retarded children have in mind when they express the need for respite care. What is their definition of respite care in the past? (80) This will involve interviewing informants within focus groups, forums and observation to collect qualitative data. Chauncey (1994) collected data through individual interviews and group meetings on the emotional concerns and treatment needs of male partners of female sexual abuse survivors. Concerns included conflicts about expressing needs, frustration with various aspects of their relationships, guilt and shame at having feelings, questions about how to deal with relatives, and sexual issues (80). What level of description is useful? In some needs assessments the independent variable is fixed and cannot be changed; unlike program evaluations where the program is the independent variable and can be changed. For example, the relationship between the level of retardation in the child and the expressed need of the parents for respite care. The level of retardation cannot be changed as the participants already possess this quality (level of retardation) before the study. This kind of study is called ex post facto design (after the fact). Variables used in this design are gender, ethnicity, age living and type of problem. Chassier (1997) administered the Attachment History Questionnaire to 30 female anorectic and bulimic patients and 31 primary female social work students who served as the comparison group. The findings demonstrated that the anorectic and bulimics differed significantly from the comparisons on all four sub factors of the questionnaire: secure attachment base, parental discipline, threats of separation, and peer affectional support. These results were interpreted using john Bowlby’s attachment theory (81). NOTE: Some problems with the ex post facto design a) The independent variable is an attribute not an experimental manipulation like random assignment to a program or group that is not in the program. b) Any difference in the dependent variable could be due to other factors which this design cannot control. This means the relationship between variables is associative. So causality cannot be involved with this design e.g. although there may be a relationship between parents requesting respite care less frequently and them having less retarded children, it cannot be concluded that being a parent of a less retarded child leads to less need for respite care. THE AGENCY AND DESIGNING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS You can be creative in carrying out needs assessments for example in addition to mailed surveys you can device other ways to collect data. ETHICAL ISSUES IN DESIGING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS It is important to accurately document the expressions of the participants and not what the agency wants or to try and please the funding agency. This is solved by involving the clients as much as possible in the research and in its design. This also empowers the participants. Larson, Poswa, and Van Rooyen (197) described how a group of students in Kwa Zulu natal, South Africa, were placed for their field practicum in a community called Bhambayi. Bhambayi was originally a model community established by Gandhi. Now it is primarily a squatters’ settlement, with a few formal services and extremely high unemployment. The students, in consultation with the community, wanted to assess the needs of the youth in Bhambayi. After interviewing 60 youths, all of whom were officially unemployed, more than half were found to have never attended high school. One of the questions asked about their skills. The responses included carpentry, needlework, shoemaking, and mechanics. It was also disclosed that many held informal jobs. The students and the community built on these skills by developing income-generating projects such as food production, concrete block making, and mechanical repairs. The research itself gave motivation and a sense of hope to the residents of Bhambayi as many commented that until asked about their skills, they had felt they did not possess skills that could result in income (82). HUMAN DIVERSITY ISSUES IN DESIGNING NEEDS ASSESMENTS Because needs assessments identify” defects” or problems so new programs or modifications can be made can lead to the stigmatization of certain groups. This is when a problem gets associated with a certain group e.g. inner city African American youth with crime, or refugee groups with acculturation problem etc. But needs assessments can also assess strengths of participants in the research and should do so in addition to identifying the needs of the groups. A “strengths” Needs Assessment Marin and Vacha (1994) examined self-help strategies and resources among people at risk for homelessness. They studied the practice of doubling up with friends and relatives and examined the relationships with those who housed them. Recommendations were made to enhance the living conditions among doubled-up households so they can continue to serve as a foundation in the prevention of homelessness (82). Read More