SOCW 6311 Week 8 Assignment - Assignment: Planning a Needs Assessment II
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ColleagueDiscussions.docxColleague #1 - Colleague
RE: Discussion - Week 8
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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.
Response to Colleague
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Hi Colleague,
I like your approach for gathering information. A major strength that the key informants have is that “they may have broader knowledge of services available in the community than the targeted population does” (Tutty & Rothery, 2010). By capitalizing on the strengths of key informants, especially those who have the influence to affect change, is key to the success of any program. One thing that may affect the ability to access program or services would of course be funding, as a lack of funding is oftentimes why communities and programs are unable to sustain.
Reference
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)
Colleague #2 - Germ
RE: Discussion - Week 8
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Needs assessments are a form of research conducted to gather information about the needs of a population or group in the community. Needs assessments are often times used to develop new services or to evaluate the existing programs (Tutty & Rothery, 2010). This method was used when looking into the need for caregivers for people with intellectual disabilities. There is a shortage of direct support professionals in this field and many agencies are struggling to find adequate care for the individuals with intellectual disabilities they support. A lack of staff can also keep individuals with disabilities from going into and being integrated in the community (Friedman, 2019).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2017) reported as of May 2017 the national average wage for a direct support professional was $11.59 per hour. This rate of pay is below the poverty line for a two person home. This is a trend that showed to be problematic as research, through employee questionnaires and surveys, that low wages are one of the leading causes of DSP turnover (Easterseals Midwest, 2020). The information used from the employee questionnaires and surveys served as a catalyst for agencies that supported people with disabilities to lobby the government for better reimbursement rates to pay better wages to the workers. Without the information of the employee questionnaires and surveys, many agencies like Easterseals Midwest would still be floundering for support workers.
Anonymous questionnaires or surveys are beneficial and can objectively collect needed data from those in the profession and get a more honest and accurate answer to the issues that lay within these agencies (Dudley, 2020). Asking for the information straight from the source is more beneficial than just speculating to what the issues really are. Being anonymous will give more credible answers as the participants in the questionnaire do not have to fear retaliation.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2017). Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/2017/may/oes399021.htm.
Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation:Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
Easterseals Midwest. (2020). www.esmw.org/midwest.
Friedman, C. (2019). The council on Quality and Leadership. Reimbursement Rates, Retention and Research. https://www.c-q-l.org/resource/articles/the-dsp-crisis-reimbursement-rates-retention-and-research.
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)
Response to Colleague #2
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Hi Germ,
Thank you for sharing! I really like your idea of utilizing the questionnaire or surveys to collect data, as I too, opted to use this method. One thing with selecting key informants, especially community members, is that they may not have a full understanding of the needs of their more marginalized citizens (Tutty & Rothery, 2010), which is unfortunate because community members play a huge role in the improvement of neighborhoods and communities! Another great point in your post is how the lack of evaluation (surveys/questionnaires) can result in the lack of support workers. Many times, funding is tied into performance and outcomes. To advocate for additional funding, one must be willing and able to produce quality outcomes. The use of the qualitative surveys is beneficial because it allows for you to use open-ended questions and access the needs of the population that you are serving (Tutty & Rothery, 2010).
Reference
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)
Response to Colleague #2
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Hey Germ,
Thanks for sharing. I'm shocked to see the wage you shared! We are clearly underpaid and that's something I hope to spend more time advocating more on. Anyway, I think a strength you shared is noting the anonymity of needs assessments and how this aspect helps elicit more honest answering (Dudley, 2020). One area I think that could be improved is targeting your population of direct service workers. I wonder if by "direct service workers" you mean professionals such as social workers, therapists, etc. Direct service workers are present in a lot of different fields; the term can also be used for professionals in the fast food or service industries. In the future it would be best to be more specific so that your assessment is better understood. Great work!
References
Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
Colleague #3 - Colon
RE: Discussion - Week 8
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Post a needs assessment plan for a potential program of your choice that meets a currently unmet need. Describe the unmet need and how current information supports your position that a needs assessment is warranted.
The program that this writer chose is a program that works with children who are involved in the juvenile justice system and are currently court ordered into programming. The unmet need that this writer has identified is the lack of placement options and effective programming for families of children who are involved with the court system. When children are removed from their home and sent away for “rehabilitation”, once their stay is over, they are oftentimes returning to the very environment that assisted in the decisions that they have made. The need is for underserved communities to be afforded with opportunities and resources that will assist families with remaining together, less stress on the parents and more importantly, less responsibility on older children. “Underserved communities have the highest need for built environment interventions because they are characterized by limited financial resources and poor infrastructure” (Escaron, 2009).
Identify the sources of information that you might use when conducting a needs assessment, including potential informants. Explain who among these potential informants would be valuable resources and why. Identify steps for obtaining credible, unbiased information.
When conducting the needs assessment, this writer would consider defining the need properly, asking the how and who questions, ensuring that the stakeholders are involved, clearly identifying the targeted group or population, and selecting the method of the needs assessment (Tutty & Rothery, 2010). Some potential informants would be community leaders, stakeholders, governmental officials, and the community- as in the people that reside in the neighborhoods that we are serving. The informants that would be the most valuable to this writer would be the individuals that reside in the neighborhoods that we are serving, as they are the ones who knows the most about what is needed in their community/neighborhood. Secondly, this writer would suggest that the community leaders and government officials would be the next most potential, as they are the ones who has the power to affect change. Steps to obtaining credible, unbiased information would be to go into the neighborhoods and utilize the quantitative survey, as it provides flexibility on how they can be administered (Tutty & Rothery, 2010).
References
Escaron A. L. (2009). Underserved communities have the highest need for built environment interventions targeting obesity. American journal of public health, 99(7), 1159–1160. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.159954
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)
Response to Colleague #3
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Hey Colon,
Thanks for your post. I like the topic you're wanting to address. This is certainly a need in many communities. One strength I noticed is that you intend to fully capture the need in the community in various ways. You noted that you would explore the opinions and gather support from community stakeholders, but also directly from neighborhood families. Tutty and Rothery (2010) emphasize the need to gather support from stakeholders, as they are the avenues for change in larger systems. Tutty and Rothery (2010) also highlight the value in gaining insight from those directly affected by something- neighborhood families in your case. I would be interested in hearing why families think some families are separated or unable to function as a family unit. In targeting your population more, I would suggest looking to professionals who work with child protective services or families who have successfully navigated these supports before. This way, you could gain insight from those directly in the field and who have experience with a "successful" reunification.
References
Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
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.
Colleague #4 – Slobdick
RE: Discussion - Week 8
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An unmet need for the Atlanta area is education, housing, and medical care for individuals living with HIV. According to Ikard et al. (2005), there are hundreds of people in Atlanta and surrounding ares who do not know their HIV status and many of the individuals who know their status but are not receiving the necessary treatment. primarily these individuals are part of the under served community and are unaware of the resources and treatment available to them.
According to Tutty and Rothery (2010), a need assessment is a form of research conducted to gather needs of a population or group in a community. Sources of information would come from Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the local health department, local hospitals, high schools, colleges and other staples in the community (such as the church) to gather insight on how this unmet need effects the community. I would also like to gather insight on what the members of the community thinks it needs to combat this problem/need. The local hospitals and health departments will be a valuable resource that can provide information to the community on HIV and the treatments available to them if they are positive and how to prevent it if they are negative. Other reliable source would be any of the local organizations who are present in the community and really have a hand in the population.
Reference:
Ikard, K., Janney, J., & Hsu, L., C., (2010) Estimation of Unmet need for HIV primary medical care: A framework and three case studies
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
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