Week 8 Assignment

profilesalel.rgpl3
WAL_COUN6626F_8_A_EN.pdf

Needs Assessment

Needs Assessment Program Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LAURA HADDOCK: We're going to take a moment to shift our focus to another skill that's important to you in your role as a clinician. While you may not routinely conduct formal research for publication, you will likely very routinely conduct research related to needs assessment or program evaluation.

In general, a needs assessment is an evaluative process. You gather and interpret data about the need for a program or a service.

So if you're a clinician that's offering services to clients or you work for an agency that's going to offer services to clients, you're going to have to make decisions about what services to offer. In other words, needs assessment is about what you do before a program is initiated.

Organizations use needs assessments to make decisions about how to establish services and what resources they're going to use to target the populations they want to focus on. So the concept of need is defined as the difference or the gap between what currently exists and what should exist or what's reasonably possible to meet the needs of your clients.

So let's first think about this on a macro level. In general, broadly, needs assessments provide you with information that can help you or organizations or therapists that work in an organization individualize their services.

So what does that mean for you? Well, it's really important for you to understand how to conduct a needs assessment so that you know how to create new services to serve your clients.

So let's say, for example, that you work for a counseling agency in a rural setting. You might use a needs assessment as a way to identify what sort of counseling services need to be offered to best meet the needs of your clients.

Now some of you may be wondering what the difference is between a needs assessment and a program evaluation. Sometimes the two are confused, and sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably, but they are not synonymous.

A needs assessment shows you what you need to be doing in the first place, while a program evaluation tells you how well you did after you've already provided the service. You're seeking to gather information about whether or not to offer a program.

© 2017 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

Needs Assessment

This could include gathering information to help you determine whether a program needs to be on a particular day or how long the sessions should last or whether you need to offer transportation. But you might also be looking to identify what needs the potential clients have and how you can go about meeting those needs.

So in terms of the key differences between a needs assessment and a program evaluation, remember that a needs assessment is formative. It helps identify what resource is needed. A program evaluation is summative-- it's final, it's used to gauge the quality of an existing service.

Read the case study example and review the data set, then you'll answer the questions based on the data.

Now you'll notice that this week you have the option of working as an individual or in a small group. You won't be assigned to groups. If you opt to work in a small group, you'll simply want to reach out to one or two of your classmates and collaborate on the project. You cannot have more than three people to a group.

If you do choose to work as a group, you will all complete the worksheet, with your answers matching of course, and you will each submit the worksheet and be graded on the due date. You want to focus your efforts on establishing the need for a service prior to service onset. Consider whether the potential treatment provider has given you what you need to know before they start the service.

They are seeking to individualize a plan, and you are serving as the team that's deciding whether the plan is going to go into place.

Needs Assessment Additional Content Attribution

FOOTAGE: WAL_COUN6626F_LauraHaddock.jpg Credit: Laura Haddock

GettyLicense_112704801 (Assessment) Credit: [PBNJ Productions]/[Blend Images]/Getty Images

GettyLicense_173628758 (Survey) Credit: [enis izgi]/[E+]/Getty Images

MUSIC: SC_Light&Bright06_T32 and/or SC_Business01_T41 Credit: Studio Cutz

© 2017 Laureate Education, Inc. 2