SOCW 6311 wk 8 peer responses 

Respond to at least two colleagues by doing all of the following: Name first and references after every person

• 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

Instructor wants lay out like this:

Respond to at least two colleagues ( 2 peers posts are provided) by doing all of the following:

Identify strengths of your colleagues’ analyses and areas in which the analyses could be improved.

Your response

Address his or her evaluation of the efficacy and applicability of the evidence-based practice,

Your response

[Evaluate] his or her identification of factors that could support or hinder the implementation of the evidence-based practice,

Your response

And [evaluate] his or her solution for mitigating those factors.

Your response

Offer additional insight to your colleagues by either identifying additional factors that may support or limit implementation of the evidence-based practice or an alternative solution for mitigating one of the limitations that your colleagues identified.

Your response

References

Your response

Peer 1: McKenna Bull 

RE: Discussion – Week 8

COLLAPSE

Top of Form

Needs assessments are a form of research conducted to gather information about the needs of a population or a group in a community (Tutty & Rothery, 2010, p. 149). One purpose of a needs assessment is to explore in more depth whether a new program within an organization or agency is needed (Dudley, 2014, p. 117). Key questions of this type of needs assessment may revolve around: (1) whether there are enough prospective clients to warrant this type of program, (2) the different activities or programs that the respondents would be interested in using, priorities for some activities over others, (3) importance of the activities, and (4) times in which this program would be desired and used (Dudley, 2014, p. 117). Potential barriers for the implementation of a new program should also be assessed to ensure the best possible outcome. Some barriers to services could include factors such as: location, costs, potential need for fees, and possible psychological issues related to such things. The following is an assessment of an intensive outpatient program for youth, and a potential need that is currently being unmet.

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 intensive outpatient program (IOP) at Provo Canyon Behavioral Hospital provides specialized care for adolescents who struggle with a wide variety of mental health and behavioral needs. Some of the primary therapeutic modalities include: psychoeducational groups, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT), EMDR, and experiential therapies such as music, pet and recreational therapies. Though this program provides a wide array of services to attempt to meet the needs of these particular youth, there are still needs being unmet. In particular, the needs of the LGBTQIA+ youth seem to be overlooked and underserved.

LTBTQIA+ youth as a whole are more susceptible than their heterosexual peers to be succumbed to family violence and homelessness, have higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, may experience higher levels of depressive symptoms, and are more likely to consider and attempt suicide (p. 16).  In Utah, the predominant culture revolves around Mormon ideologies and beliefs. Some of these ideologies and “morals” can leave potentially long-lasting, negative effects on those who do not necessarily fit in with them. Higa et al. (2014) suggests that negative factors such as the ideals of religion can have an overall detrimental impact on the development of an LGBTQIQ+ youths identity, and may negatively impact their overall psyche (p. 663). As a whole, the LGBTQIA+ youth in Utah are highly susceptible to negative outcomes, and may require a great deal of support in order to overcome the challenges faced.

This being said, one may argue that a social support group could be beneficial in improving the overall outcomes of these at risk youth. Wilkerson et al. (2017) suggests that an increase in social support may have the potential to improve the overall health of LBTQIA+ youth (p. 358). This particular study evaluated the effects of a group that involved an hour of each of the following: unstructured social time, consciousness-raising (education), and a youth led peer support group (Wilkerson et al., 2017, p. 358). What was found in this cross-sectional study was that youth who attended this support group for multiple months reported higher social support, and this increased social support was associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms and a decrease in potentially risky behaviors.

This type of group could be beneficial to implement at this particular IOP program. Based on the current and recent populations attending this program, the majority report falling on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, and have reported that a great deal of their stressors revolve around this component of themselves. There is currently no intervention specifically implemented to meet the unique needs of this vulnerable population. The groups facilitated aim to increase resilience and motivation, yet fail to address the root cause of a number of clients issues.

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.

Potential informants for this particular needs assessment could include a number of individuals. Firstly, the youth involved in the IOP program. The thoughts and perceptions of these individuals would be highly informational, as they seem to be the population who’s needs have been overlooked and unmet for some time. It would be interesting to gain a better understanding of how they perceive their own individual needs, and how they feel these needs could be met. Perhaps the parents of the children should be involved, and they could provide insight into their children’s behavior(s) outside of the program, help to understand their child’s potential needs, and provide other needed information as well. Stakeholders should also be involved throughout the process, as they may have an overall influential say in whether a program such as this is developed and implemented, or is left to be addressed at a different time or by another agency.

Identify steps for obtaining credible, unbiased information.

For the sake of this particular study, perhaps utilizing a combination of approaches to gather data may be most prudent. Many needs assessments use multiple methods of data collection to capture a more comprehensive picture of the population of interest (Dudley, 2014, p. 134). Some of the particular modalities one may use in this situation may be: administering a questionnaire to the population of interest, conducting informant interviews, and observing discussions between individuals who may fall into the population of interest. Utilizing a combination of approaches could allow researchers to gain an overall better understanding of the needs of the individuals within the population, and provide insight into how to provide aid.

References

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

Friesner, D. E., & Peck, L. R. (2007). Comparison group identification for difficult-to-evaluate populations: lessons from evaluating 1n10 LGBTQ youth support services. Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, 4(8), 16–39.

Higa, D., Hoppe, M. J., Lindhorst, T., Mincer, S., Beadnell, B., Morrison, D. M., Wells, E. A., Todd, A., & Mountz, S. (2014). Negative and Positive Factors Associated with the Well-Being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth. Youth & Society, 46(5), 663–687.

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.

Wilkerson, J. M., Schick, V. R., Romijnders, K. A., Bauldry, J., & Butame, S. A. (2017). Social support, depression, self-esteem, and coping among LGBTQ adolescents participating in hatch youth. Health Promotion Practice, 18(3), 358–365.

Bottom of Form

Peer 2: Cedric Brown 

RE: Discussion – Week 8

COLLAPSE

Top of Form

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 I chose was the Arise Counseling Services where I am currently doing my field education experience. The reason that I proposed a needs assessment is to make sure that the needs of the community are being met as well as to see if there is a need to implement a new program. To ensure that the clients are satisfied with the services and the quality. Also, the needs assessment would be to see if a new program such as an anger management group would be beneficial. Currently, the agency does not provide those services and by doing a needs assessment you would be able to interview and survey the stakeholders to gauge the interest as well as the backing of the program. Needs assessments can gather valuable information to social problems that have a negative impact on their community (Dudley, 2014).

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.

    The information that would be gathered for the need’s assessment would be from current board members, clients, employees, community members, and other agencies that work with Arise. All of the individuals involved would be considered informants and their information would drive the assessment. Each stakeholder brings a different perspective to the assessment and they all would be valuable to implementing a new program within the agency.

Identify steps for obtaining credible, unbiased information.

    The steps for obtaining the information would be to utilize a qualitative method using individual interviews. Using interviews gives you an opportunity to build a rapport with the interviewees and have the ability to talk about sensitive issues that you might not have through a survey (Tutty & Rothery, 2010). You also have an open space to possibly find out if the needs are not being met in other areas of the agency. So, I think taking into account all that is involved and then rate what they think the needs of the program and if it would be beneficial.

Cedric

Reference

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)