needs assessment training august 14, 2014. strategic prevention framework

Needs Assessment Training

August 14, 2014

Strategic Prevention Framework

Steps of the Needs Assessment

Two Common Kinds of Needs Assessments

• What are my community’s top issues?

• Why is this specific issue such a problem in my community?

The “What” Assessment

• Focus on:– Extent of use– Extent of related problems (consequences)

• Goal: identify the most problematic but changeable areas to focus on

The “Why” Assessment

• Go in-depth on an identified problem

• Can be focused by a logic model

• Focus on:– In general, why is this a problem?– Specifically, why is this a problem here?

(contributing local factors; root causes)

• Goal: Identify the most substantial, changeable links in the chain to use/consequences

Public Health Model

Host

AgentEnvironment

Public Health Approach to preventing and reducing

substance-related problems

• Population level change focuses on change for the entire population. By this we mean a collection of individuals who have one or more personal or environment characteristics in common.

• Influencing whole communities – not just 20, 50 or 200 “individuals”.


substance-related problems• Outcome based prevention focuses on reducing

negative consequences to substance abuse by using data to identify consequences, consumption patterns and casual factors

• Communities know what their problem are• Which factor cause the problems• Which strategies are effective in reducing the

risk factor and underlying conditions


substance-related problems

• A logical approach, grounded in data collection and clear linkages between consequences, consumption, risk factors and underlying conditions and strategies

Substance-Related Consequences and Consumption

Risk and Protective Factors/Causal Factors

Strategies (Policies, Practices,Programs)

•Overall consumption•Heavy consumption•Consumption in risky situations•Consumption by high risk groups

•Availability of substances•Promotion of substances•Social norms•Enforcement of policies•Perception of risk•Positive attitude toward use

MUST:•Address the targeted consequence•Address risk and protective factors /causal factors involved•Be evidenced-based

Assessing your needs

• If you start your needs assessment knowing which programs, polices or practice you want to implement, then your not are really assessing your needs…you are justifying your choice of strategies

BASIC Steps

1.Planning the needs assessment

2.Collecting data

3.Prioritizing the data

Planning NA

• You need a clear plan for collecting the information critical to your assessment in as efficient a manner as possible.

• STAY FOCUSED

Sub Committee

• To oversee and conduct the NA

• Ensure geographic coverage

• Members who speak to substance abuse issues across the full life span of the community

• Members with an array of experience so everything is culturally competent

Building Your County Team

• Building a county data assessment team will be a great asset

• Knowing who to bring on board as a member is very important

• Relationships formed as a result of this process may help build strategic alliances that may be beneficial in future endeavors

Your County TeamWho might be a fit for your team?

• Someone who can commit their time • Someone who knows data or has access

to data• Someone willing to provide input and give

feedback • Someone known by others as a

“champion” of causes to help others • Someone whose “clout” will help add

legitimacy to your process

Your County TeamCounty Team Building Activity

• Pair together in groups of two to three people.

• Brainstorm to come up with a list of people who you feel would ideally be members of your county team and state reasons why.

• Be prepared to share your list with the group!

How to start• Gather and review previous assessments

conducted in our county

• Ask the following questions:– Who is involved (age, gender, income,

race/ethnicity)– Where does the problem occur

(area/town/location)– When does the problem occur

(time of day/season– Why is the problem occurring

Methods for collecting data

• Focus Groups

• Key Information Interviews – – Interviews with community experts

• Environmental Scans

• Community Surveys

• Archival Data

• Resource/Policy Assessment

Common Types of Data

Pros/Cons?

Pros and Cons

Focus Groups

• Focus groups are beneficial because they allow participants to gather in a single location at a given time to share perceptions and information

• To maximize the benefits of focus groups, the moderator should have some specific knowledge of the process rather than conducting a focus group blindly

Focus Groups

• Qualitative Data from your community about issues and attitudes

• Participants share ideas and observations that can clarify issues for you or present new perspectives

• Can be different age groups or community sectors

Key Informant Interviews

• Key informant interviews allow flexibility as they do not require a group of people to come together for participation

• Will require some effort to seek appropriate interviewees and receive response in a timely manner


• Perspectives from people who observe ad monitor community functioning

• Youth, educators, school resource officers, community leaders, neighborhood residents, elders, law enforcement, solicitors, local government, judicial officers, etc.


• You can ask the interviewee specific question that may address a particular gap

• Open-ended question provide general themes for discussion

• But allow community experts to introduce their own ideas and issues

Key Informant Interviews Consider the following for interviews:

• ATOD Treatment • ATOD Prevention• Law enforcement• Youth• Social service agency• Local government • Community groups• Health care providers

• Education (k-12)• Education (higher ed.)• Faith Community• Media• Health department• Local coalitions• Mental health agency

KII Guides

• KII packet includes these guides/items:– Instruction/greeting sheet– Adult KII Guide– Youth KII Guide– Law Enforcement KII Guide– K-12 Education KII Guide– Higher Education KII Guide

KII Guides

• KIIs are geared toward gathering thoughts, experiences and ideas about ATOD consumption.

• KIIs will provide useful, additional consumption related information for county profiles

• Answers to questions should prove to be especially helpful in counties with no local survey participation

• A guide sheet will be produced to show which questions on each KII guide are alcohol, tobacco, or other drug related.

KII Guides

• Interviews may last an estimated 20-45 minutes depending upon interviewee and ability of interviewer to maintain the focus of the interview

• Ideally counties will interview several diverse persons for each KII guide

• Conducting KIIs should be a team effort

Surveys

• Collection of questions that are asked of many people in the same manner

• Each with a fixed set of possible responses from which to choose

• Can be administered y mail, fact-to-face over the telephone or via the web

Survey Advantages

Survey Disadvantages

Survey Data

• Local School Survey – –Communites That Care School

Survey

• Parent Survey

• Community Survey

Archival Data

• Can be a wide range of things– AET Data– Crash Data– Outlet Data– Treatment Data

• Good interpretation is important

• Consider graphing/plotting

Interpreting Archival Data

• What could these crash data tell you?– Avg. total crashes per month– % of annual crashes that are alcohol-related– Keep going!

Using Rates

• Can make numbers easier to grasp; more accurate to compare– Percentages– Events per # of people or attempts

• Think through the denominator– Crash example: crashes per total population?

Survey & Archival Data

• How far back do you dig?

• Most recent always most valuable

• Trend data can be very useful, too

• AET Compliance Rate– 12.5% in FY ‘11– Has dropped each year; used to be >20%

Qualitative Data

• Town Hall Meetings

• Focus Groups

• Key Informant Interviews– “One on One’s”

Qualitative Data

• What to do with it?

– Good write-up is key

– Analysis techniques vary from high-tech to low-tech

Non-traditional Assessment Methods

• Brief “homeroom surveys”• Undercover “observations” of retailers• “Place of last drink”/Alcohol source• Party hunting• Media scans• Environmental scans• Policy assessments• Resource assessments

Environmental Scans

• The goal of scans is simply to get a sense of what messages (blatant or subtle) your community is putting out regarding alcohol and tobacco use.

• Scans should include alcohol and tobacco surveillance/observation for stores as well as billboards and other forms of advertisement in the community

• Environmental Scan forms provided

Pulling it All Together

• Mix of art and science

• Begin w/ key questions you were looking to answer

• For each data source, determine the most important findings for each key question

• By key question, compare those findings across data sources– Look for common themes

Prioritizing

• Prevalence of the contributing local factor

• Relationship between the contributing local factor and priority issue

• Capacity to change the contributing local factored

• Political Will to change the contributing local factor

Cultural Competency

• Be inclusive of state and community level key leaders

• Various sectors of county

• Law enforcement ,school, youth etc.

• Various sib [populations (age, race, sex, etc

• Geographic locations

• Be conscious of communication styles, etc.

SEOW Theory

The SPF requires States and communities to systematically:

1. Assess their prevention needs based on epidemiological data,

2. Build their prevention capacity,

3. Develop a strategic plan,

4. Implement effective community prevention programs, policies and practices, and

5. Evaluate their efforts for outcomes.

State Epidemiological Profile

• Provides written descriptions, tables, and charts• Shows consumption and consequence trend and

prevalence data for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana and other illicit drugs

• Gives a summary for each indicated drug category

• A partial list of indicators include availability/consumption, current use, binge use, mortality, daily use, sexual activity and dependence or abuse

The Results section, which is the largest section:


• Offers an overall summary of findings

• Discusses data limitations

The Conclusion section:


• Constructs and indicators used

• Data sources used

• Indicates geographic levels of constructs and indicators data sources (i.e. national, state) and SAMHSA NOM Domain (i.e. reduced morbidity, crime and criminal justice)

The Appendix section outlines:

County Epidemiological Profiles

• As with the state profile, the Executive Summary is a brief description of data driven and supported consumption and consequences findings for selected indicators of 1) alcohol, 2) tobacco, and 3) marijuana and other illicit drugs.

• Feel free to add to the template version of the opening paragraph in order to personalize the executive summary to your specific county and efforts


• Unlike the state profile, in the county profile, the Executive Summary concludes with a “County Priorities” section

• This is an opportunity to briefly highlight or identify the problems/issues your county has identified as priorities


Conclude the Introduction section withdiscussion of:

• data challenges in your county• how closely your county was or was not able to

adhere to the criteria for causal, consequence, and consumption constructs and indicators listed on page 2 and 3 of the Introduction section, which include 1) availability, 2) validity, 3) periodic collection, 4) consistency, and 5) sensitivity


The Methods section should describe:

• How priorities were determined• How data is presented in the profile (i.e. charts,

tables, or graphs with state or school district comparisons)

• Confidence intervals• Survey results weaknesses if applicable• Unstable data due to small number of events if

applicable


• The Results section begins with a County Overview

• The County Overview is a generalized description of the county

• It will probably be ½ to one page long

• How you would describe your county to outsiders


• In the Results section a summary is written for data findings in each of the three drug categories

• Try to include compelling/key data in the summary

• Add “sub-region” data where available (i.e. crime data mapped to show areas of concern)

Written PlanOverall Composition

• Executive Summary

• Introduction

• Methods

• Results

• Conclusion

• Appendix

Closing the Loop

Assessment & Evaluation

• Assessment can be foundation for evaluation plan

• Focus on why efforts began– Did problem behavior/consequences change?– Did contributing local factors change?

• “Scope” may not match

• Pieces of evaluation can initiate a new assessment or a revision of current plans

Cultural Competence

• Have diversity on your assessment & analysis team

• Identify populations that won’t get covered from traditional data collection

• Review collection methods/tools for appropriateness to key populations

How Often Do You Reassess?

• Regular updates of “easy” data can be helpful

• Consider which data sources can be viewed as often as monthly to gauge immediate impact

• Full assessments every 3-5 years

needs assessment training august 14, 2014. strategic prevention framework

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