Colleague #1 - ColleagueRE Discussion - Week 8COLLAPSETop o

Colleague #1 - Colleague
RE: Discussion - Week 8
COLLAPSE
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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 proces s.
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
COLLAPSE
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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
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
COLLAPSE
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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
Sage. (PDF)
Top of Form
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

Colleague #3 - Colon
COLLAPSE
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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
Sage. (PDF)
COLLAPSE
Top of Form
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
B. Thyer (Ed.), The handbook of social work research methods
(2nd ed.,pp. 149–162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Colleague #4 – Slobdick
COLLAPSE
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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
B. Thyer (Ed.). The handbook of social work research methods
(2nd ed., pp. 149-162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Bottom of Form
Week7: Logic Models and Theory Informed Interve ntion
A logic model is a picture representation that shows the
association between activities, outputs, resources, and the
effects of a particular program (Randolph and Thyer 2010).
Problem
Needs
Underlying Causes
Intervention Activities
Outcomes
· What services does the agency need to offer to assist low -
income young mother’s be more successful.
· Young mother’s may not be receiving the maximum benefit of
the agency’s services because of program redundancy with other
community resources
· Health Care
· Childcare

· Quality food resources
· Childcare
· Child health and development
· Economic self-insufficiency
· Lack of education regarding pregnancy outcomes
· Prenatal health
· Problems caused by the parent's beliefs and their environment
(Bronte-Tinkew and Redd 2001).
· Social support
· Essential community health and resources
· Infant immunizations
· Connections to Community health services
· Assisting housing
· Infant care, and food.
Short-term:
· Plans for economic self-sufficiency.
· Reduced unplanned pregnancy
· Increased
· Decreased cognitive and language delays
· Decreased fear and distress (Bronte-Tinkew and Redd 2001).
Long term:
· When the children become teenagers,
· reduced number of arrests and convictions.
· There will be increased spacing between the first and second
child
· Mothers will have jobs; thus, catering to the needs of their
families will be easier (Bronte-Tinkew and Redd 2001).
Logic Model of Family-focused program in Early Childhood
Development for Low-income young Mothers
Family-focused programs have different goals to focus on the
importance of a child's early life and how parents play a role in

that. The program includes making home visits to check the
environment in which these families live, thus better
understanding what they need. The program begins when the
mother is pregnant to when she delivers. By teaching low -
income young mothers about child development is crucial.
Parenting can affect a child's development and can be impacted
by several pathways, including home environments, parental
beliefs, and the parents' mental health. 6the team might explore
and learn more about this through home visits as not all mothers
will come to the hospital.
Problems
Some of the problems low-income mothers experience include
childcare challenges, including child health and development
and the family's economic self-insufficiency. Another problem
these mothers go through is the lack of education regarding
pregnancy outcomes, especially prenatal health. A logic model
can be applied to see the relationship between the problems,
needs, and activities of the intervention and outcomes. Some of
the problems are caused by the parent's beliefs and their
environment (Bronte-Tinkew and Redd 2001).
Needs
Some of the resources required for the completion of the
program will include the volunteers or staff's time, supplies,
and money.
Underlying cause and Intervention Activities
Home visits will include visiting their homes weekly in the first
month then every week until the mother gives birth. In the first
week, the mothers will be taught about the fetus's effects when
the mother uses illicit drugs such as alcohol. The mothers will
be taught about the importance of eating a balanced diet and
weight gain during pregnancy. Methods of family planning to be
taught immediately the mother gives birth so as t make sure that
the children they get can get all their basic needs. After the
mothers have delivered, home visits will be twice a month.
Parents will receive education on the importance of
breastfeeding the baby inclusively then light feeds after six

months to ensure the healthy growth of their baby. If they are in
postpartum depression, they will receive emotional and
psychological support. The mother's decision-making about
their future will be facilitated, including the importance of
planning for future children and selection of the suitable family
planning method. The mothers will be helped in determining the
right strategies and goals for working so that they can support
their children's education. This will improve the mothers' life
course by helping them determine the lifelong vision of their
future at the same time work and plan for their pregnancies
Short term Outcome
The mothers will, in the end, grow their plans for economic
self-sufficiency that is reducing the consequent pregnancies,
and it will also increase the number of months women will be
employed by the time the child celebrates their second year.
There will be small numbers of children with cognitive and
language delays at the same time. Mothers will interact more
with others and share their problems hence reducing fear and
distress (Bronte-Tinkew and Redd 2001).
Long term Outcomes
When the children become teenagers, there will be a reduced
number of arrests and convictions due to illicit behaviors, such
as theft and destruction of property. There will be increased
spacing between the first and second child as most mothers will
have known the importance of family planning. Ten years after
the program's implementation, most mothers will have jobs;
thus, catering to the needs of their families will be easier
References
Bronte-Tinkew, J., & Redd, Z. (2001). Report to the DC
children and youth investment trust corporation: Logic models
and outcomes for youth entrepreneurship programs.
Randolph, K. A., & Thyer, B. (2010). Logic models. The
Handbook of Social Work Methods, 547-561.

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 1 of 1
Week 8: Needs Assessment in Program Evaluation
Assessment is perhaps the most fundamental of all social work
activities. It is a process of gathering pertinent information to
answer questions about problems, contributions to problems,
and potential strengths and assets. At a program-evaluation or
program-planning level, a social worker applies the same
thoughtful process used in individual assessment but extends or
filters it to answer program-level questions.
The purpose of a particular needs assessment will help you
determine the types of questions to ask and from whom to
gather information. You employ a thinking process similar to
that used in your experiences with direct practice assessment.
You generate two needs assessment plans this week, one for a
program of your choice that meets an unmet need, and the other
for a support group for caregivers.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
· Generate a needs assessment plan
· Evaluate needs assessment plans
Learning Resources
Required Readings
· (For review) Chapter 6, “Needs Assessment” (pp. 115–143)
· Chapter 7, “Crafting Goals and Objectives” (pp. 149–168)
Sage. (PDF)
Copyright 2010 by Sage Publications, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. via the

Copyright Clearance Center.
Optional Resources
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.
Note: Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Assignment: Planning a Needs Assessment II
One of the many reasons social workers conduct needs
assessment is to provide support for new programs. Social
workers have many methods available to collect necessary data
for a needs assessment.
Social workers can use existing data from a wide range of
sources, including local and national reports by government and
nonprofit agencies, as well as computerized mapping resources.
Social workers can gather new data through interviews and
surveys with individuals and focus groups. This data can
provide the evidence that supports the need for the program.
To prepare for this Assignment, review the needs assessment
plans that you and your classmates generated for this week’s
Discussion. Also, review the logic models that you created in
Week 7 and any literature on needs of caregivers that you used
to generate them. Consider the following to stimulate your
thinking:
· Getting information about the needs of the target population:
· Who would informants be?
· What is your purpose for interacting with them?
· What questions would you ask?
· What method would you use (interview, focus group,

questionnaire)?
· Finding potential clients:
· What method would you use?
· Interacting with the target population:
· What method would you use?
Submit a 700-word paper outlining a hypothetical needs
assessment related to the support group program for caregivers.
Include the following:
· The resources needed to operate this service
· The program activities
· The desired outcomes
· A plan for gathering information about the population served
· Justifications for your plans and decisions
· A one-paragraph conclusion describing how you might
conduct a follow-up to the needs assessment at the
implementation stage of the program evaluation

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