Needs Assessment

Program Evaluation Types Evaluation of Need Evaluation of Process Evaluation of Outcome Evaluation of Efficiency

Programs for Class Discussion Sexual assault companions Mediation center in New River Valley After school academic and activity center

What is a Need? Discrepancy between actual level and An ideal A norm A minimum A desired state An expected state A need is something that people must have to be in a satisfactory state (Scriven & Roth, 1990) Posavac & Carey (2003) page 115 Discuss Nagy’s method of measuring job satisfaction

Analysis of Need Four Key Questions What are we trying to accomplish? Why do we think there is a need for our program? Is there an actual need for our program? Is our idea for a program practical?

Analysis of Need What are We Trying to Accomplish? Do we have a particular need in mind or are we trolling for unmet needs in general? Is the dog wagging the tail or is the tail wagging the dog? What is the real goal? To help others? To help our agency survive? To justify our job? Royce et al (2001) pages 53-54

Analysis of Need Why Do We Think There is a Need? Normative Need Felt Need Expressed Need Comparative Need Royce et al (2001) pages 53-54

Analysis of Need Is There an Actual Need for our Program? Is there actually a problem or unmet need? Are there existing programs trying to solve the problem? Are their enough potential clients to justify a program?

Analysis of Need Is the Program Practical? Will people participate in the program? Are the barriers insurmountable? Do we have the expertise? Do we have the funding?

Resource Analysis Funding Staff Physical resources How much Number Skills Availability Physical resources Office space Phones Computers Vehicles

Identifying Potential Stakeholders Funding sources Administrators Staff Community groups Politicians Businesses Unions Current, past, and future clients

Needs Assessment Methods Existing data Archival research Surveys Interviews Individual Focus groups Nominal groups Delphi technique Royce et al (2001) page 63-64

Police Suicide Example

Our Basic Research Question Do law enforcement personnel have higher suicide rates than the general public? If so, is it something about the people who go into law enforcement (e.g., demographics, personality)? is it something about the job (e.g., stress, availability of guns, alienation)? is it an interaction between the two?

Our Goals Establish law enforcement suicide rate look at published research look at media accounts collect new data Compare to national norms general population control for age, sex, race Establish a profile of officers who commit suicide

Suicide Rates Determining Rates Calculating Rates Department record approach Death certificate approach “Hmm, let me think” approach Calculating Rates Rate per 100,000 Proportionate Mortality Ratios (PMR)

At first glance, police have a high suicide rate FOP Study (1995) 12 per 100,000 in general population 22 per 100,000 in law enforcement population Newspaper Articles 300 police suicides per year police rate twice that of general public

At second glance… Determining the Police Suicide Rate FOP study USA Today article Review of published literature obtained number of sworn personnel computed suicide rates Collection of new data from the Roanoke and New River Valleys Review of newspaper articles

Our best estimate of the law enforcement rate is …. 18.1 Five sources 22.0 FOP study 16.3 USA Today 37.1 Media sources 18.6 Published research 10.0 Roanoke Valley Studies weighted by size of department number of years over which data were collected

Comparison to population is a bit more tricky (1996) Overall 11.7 Sex male 19.3 female 4.4 Race white 12.7 black 6.5 Race by sex WM 20.9 WF 4.8 BM 11.4 BF 2.0 Age 25-54 WM 25.6 WF 6.3 BM 13.5 BF 2.9

The PMR Comparison! Proportionate morality ratios General population 152 White, males 25-54 73 Law enforcement rates are not higher when compared to the proper control group

Expected Law Enforcement Suicide Rate for Ages 25-54 suicide % in law rate enforcement WM 25.6 72.1 18.46 WF 6.3 8.9 0.56 BM 13.5 16.9 2.28 BF 2.9 2.1 0.61 TOTAL 21.89 PMR (18.1/21.89) 82.69

Summary The police suicide rate of 18.1 is higher than the rate found in the general population This higher rate can be completely accounted for by sex, race, and age After accounting for these demographics, the police suicide rate is lower than that of the comparable general population Police-specific interventions will probably not yield significant decreases in police suicide