Discussion 1: Social ChangeThere is a variety of elements that human services professionals should consider when they are developing and evaluating human services programs. Some of these elements incl

Final Project

Linda Dotson

Walden University

Final Project

The community that this assignment is going to be addressing is the Hawaii state community. This is a community that attracts a lot of people who are homeless because it is a place that is very ideal and attractive for relaxation. An accurate figure of the homeless individuals in this state remains unknown. However, it is estimated that there are 6000 to 15000 people falling into homelessness at any given point annually (Modell, 1997). These people experience special challenges compared to the rest of the population including health challenges such as a high rate of premature death and diseases mainly infections.

Currently, efforts are made in the state to provide this homeless population with the basic needs mainly shelter. They are provided with tents at the beaches where they live. Although this is a noble effort, most of them complain that the environment is not conducive for example because they are constantly suffering infections and sunburns and that the houses are very few compared to the number of individuals who are homeless and therefore there is a great need for shelter (Modell, 1997).

To effectively address this problem, there would be a great need for a needs assessment among the community. The needs assessment would be required to help in the clear identification of the state and scope of the problem amongst the homeless in Hawaii and to determine the quality of the program in place, how effective the program is and how the program is performing. This is crucial in setting the desired goals to enhance the conditions of the homeless population. The other purpose is planning. The needs assessment would be needed for planning such as in determining the amount of resources required for the implementation to be successful (Witkin & Altschuld, 2015). Several methods would be employed to conduct the assessment.

The first method that can be used to perform need assessment for the population is extrapolation from existing studies. This means drawing data from secondary sources or other surveys that have been previously done and generalizing the results. The other method would be the use of resource inventories. The third applicable method would be a social survey. This entails collecting of raw data from the population and analyzing it. The questions that would be asked for this need assessment would be: What are the main challenges that you are currently experiencing in this community? And how long have they affected you? To evaluate the services being offered the question that would be asked would be: What has been the impact of the program in place on the homeless people?

The answers to the above question would elicit both quantitative and qualitative results. The qualitative results would be the narrations provided by the people on how their needs and how the program has impacted them. The quantitative bit of the results would be information such as the number of individuals affected by the various problems they experience and the number of homeless individuals who are yet to be resettled.

In helping to evaluate the program, the questions would be effective in helping to close the gap that is existent at the moment. This is because with the understanding of the existing need and its scope from the needs assessment then it is possible to use the question to gauge the gap in terms of the needs and concerns that are not being looked after or those that are not adequately looked after. The key determinant of finding accurate program evaluation results lies with the approach used to answer the program evaluation questions. This important because the wrong approach used may not answer effectively the program evaluation questions. McCusker & Gunaydin, (2015) compares the quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method approaches in program evaluation. The best approach is the one which combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches since it enables the program evaluator to obtain data from different sources.

The relative needs in this homeless community, first of all, are the food, shelter, and sanitation. Health has been the biggest and most primary concern and need for homeless people in Hawaii according to a survey although there also are other complains such as jobs among homeless youths. To deal with the problem of the homeless in Hawaii, the logic model that would be applied would include Integrating patient care, communication and collaboration between workers hence resulting in communities of practicing clinicians, attracting new patients to GLA, funding a two-year pilot grant and effective process for psychiatric screening for homeless patients as the outputs. It would also include building a coalition of decision makers and introduction of a new integrated program as the activities. The evaluation strategies that would be applied would involve the determination of how well the desired outcomes are achieved.

The mission of the project would be to enhance the quality of life of the homeless by meeting their needs in terms of housing and health. The main goal is providing proper houses for the homeless population. The other goal is making sure the homeless population is able to afford rental houses and are able to have the houses at a lower price. The final goal would be to make sure that their risk of diseases is alleviated and their health quality improved. The potential outcomes would be homeless project were integrated, the issues of homeless veterans were addressed due to institutional barriers, there was the creation of coalition and linking the project to legitimate VA-wide goals and good sustained program maintenance, process evaluation and encouraging the development of communities (Blue-Howells, McGuire & Nakashima, 2008). In general, the purpose of the program would be to see to it that the quality of life of the homeless is improved by providing them with proper sustainable housing or ability to afford houses for example by providing them jobs and also to alleviate the state of their health. By enhancing the quality of living for the homeless the program would bring social change by helping solve associated issues such as increased poverty, disease prevalence, mental health issues and in general preventing the undermining of these and other economic and social factors in the community.

References

Blue-Howells, J., McGuire, J., & Nakashima, J. (2008). Co-location of health care services for homeless veterans: a case study of innovation in program implementation. Social work in health care, 47(3), 219-231.

McCusker, K., & Gunaydin, S. (2015). Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542.

Modell, J. (1997). Housing the Homeless in Hawaii. Home in the islands: housing and social change in the Pacific, 194.

Witkin, B. R., & Altschuld, J. W. (2015). Planning and conducting needs assessments: A practical guide. Sage.