socw-6311-WK9A- Drafting a Process Evaluation

Running head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT PLANNING 1

NEEDS ASSESSMENT PLANNING 4

Needs Assessment Planning

Stephan A. Bell

SOCW 6311 WK 8

Cases of dementia have been on the rise and it is important for the society and family members to learn and understand how to accept, how to handle and take care of dementia patients in the family and societal levels. The Family Alliance Group is a caregiver support group for families, partners, and caregivers with dementia specialty. Nevertheless, the needs of patients with dementia are diverse and having them addressed on the basis of priority would help the patients live a better life than when some less impactful issues are handled first. The fact that the Family Alliance Group is being commenced requires also a set of requirements put in place to ensure that dementia patients’ caregiving service is professional and of a positive impact. The following outline provides a needs assessment for a dementia caregiving support group program meant to help families.

The resources needed to operate this service

To offer the Family Alliance Group Dementia Services, there are a number of resources needed. The major resource is human resource which is comprised of a number of caregivers familiar with dementia patients’ needs especially on how to relate with them. The second resource is physical materials like in some cases wheelchairs to avoid instances of falls or easily helping them move from one location to the other (Tutty, & Rothery, 2010). Physical resources also entail healthy foods, medication, and basic needs like a healthy and safe environment. Technological resources are also necessary for instance digital devices that would keep the caregiver connected with medical professionals and family members all the time.

The program activities

· Massaging the patients

· Keeping the patients engaged with interesting stories

· Talking a nature walk

· Physical exercises

· Helping the patient reminisce about their life

· Reading favorite books and watching interesting movies

· Animal therapy

· Music therapy

· Art and crafts

· Engaging in simple home chores that the patients finds fun in doing

Of important to note is that all these activities would be carried out in a systematic manner and this means that the activities must all be covered within a week. The activities that the patient would get engaged in today would be different from tomorrow’s activities to avoid instances of monotony and boredom (Tutty, & Rothery, 2010). This would also be an effective way of making the dementia patient and caregiver’s day interesting, inspiring, and creative as the main focus would remain on attaining desirable outcomes.

The desired outcomes

The overall intention of engaging the patient in all these activities is to have them have a clear flashback of their lives which might help in stimulating the brain and the memory. It is also desired that the patient through the activities would keep away from other ailments that might make the dementia more severe. According to Dudley, (2014) it is a desired outcome that the patient would stop getting severe and instead increase levels of memory thereby stagnating the condition.

A plan for gathering information about the population to serve

From family members since they are the individuals that have a higher level of contact with the dementia patients. the members of the family can help shed light on signs and symptoms of dementia they have noted on the patient and different ways they feel that their patient is happy and contented as well as the things the patient does not appreciate (Stewart, et al., 2011). Apart from family members, there are also close friends and relatives who are familiar with the condition and might help in understanding the needs of dementia patients. The medical professionals with dementia condition knowledge would also provide professional and reliable information. Lastly, the members of the society are also a critical shareholder to the program.

Justifications for your plans and decisions

The above plan and decision would come as a great aid to families with dementia patients as they would have a program through which best and professional services would be offered to their kin. It is a fact that dementia affects aged individuals who are also vulnerable in many other ways. Through the caregiving support group program, it would be possible for the families to have reliable caregivers they can entrust their loved ones and attain the most desirable outcomes with the help of provided resources.

Conclusion

With the starting of the program, it is possible to conduct a follow-up to the needs assessment at the implementation stage of the program evaluation. This is through visiting families and partners registered under the program to get to understand the needs they would consider a priority to them and have the caregivers deal with the needs as per the priority list provided (Dudley, 2014). From time to time, engaging the family members and the caregivers together with observing the patient would help in determining whether or not the program is working as expected on the patient or a review of the needs assessment should be redone.

References

Dudley, J. R. (2014). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do. (2nd ed.) Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books.

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)

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.