As a counselor you have been employed by a local agency to work as a consultant

Question

As a counselor you have been employed by a local agency to work as a consultant to develop an ongoing assessment plan that will allow the agency to determine whether the clients are making gains and are satisfied with their treatment. You visit the agency and meet with the counselors and administrators to discuss potential ways to measure treatment gains (using pre- and post-test assessments) as well as client satisfaction. Provide an outline of a plan that details how you would go about answering the question: "Are clients here getting better?" Make recommendations about the specific information the agency will need to collect and analyze in order to determine whether their clients are getting better. Refer to and cite best practices presented in the readings for this unit.

Explanation / Answer

Introduction: For local agency, the goal of assessment is to measure effectiveness of implemented project as well as client satisfaction. Role of consultant here is to assist the local agency to determine effectiveness of implemented healthcare project. This assessing function is known as evaluation, and for the whole process as a tool we can name it as monitoring and evaluation of project.

Aim for consultant: Assist the local agency to device a tool to measure effectiveness of health project implemented in local area with regard to client satisfaction, improved client health, etc.

First step in devising such a tool is to define key indicators to measure the effectiveness of implement project and validity to care provided. Following may be considered as key indicators in this case:

(a) Improvement in client lifestyle.

(b) Increase in reach of the project.

(c) Number of instances with tapering of therapy/drug.

(d) Provided therapy/medicine suited to particular need of the client (validity).

(e) Satisfaction level of relatives and friends who provide care for client.

(f) Increased awareness about coping strategies if any.

Second step is to determine how to collect relevant data to evaluate if indicators parameters are met. Data collection technique may include:

(a) Client satisfaction survey.

(b) Conduct group meeting with client and relatives to collect reflective feedback about service provided (this serves as qualitative research).

(c) Collection of data from project implantation officials. These data may include number of clients registered for service, compliance with service like number of followup or missed appointments.

(d) Collection of data from general public to assess awareness about the project and its use.

(e) Assess client data before and post therapy sessions and note difference to determine how therapy changed life of client.

Finally, the consultant needs to assist the local agency to device methodology to evaluate success of their project with regard to effectiveness, reach, validity. Following are recommendations for developing methodology:

(a) The main of measurement is to assess how the project reaching the client and what is the satisfaction level.

(b) Assessment should involve measurement of degree of change in client's lifestyle after and before treatment.

(c) Patient data security and integrity to be taken utmost care, and there should not be any breech with this regard.

(d) Correlation with subjective and objective will provide more accurate figures rather than relaying only on objective or subjective inputs.

(e) In cross-sectional research, utmost care to be taken that recipient understands why survey is being made and clarity about questions is must.

(f) If the project is funded by donor agencies, then the report should include summary of service provided and its effect on beneficiaries.

With all these recommendations and advices, consultant should assist the local agency to device proper tool to monitor and evaluate the project effectiveness.

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