All For You

Tonight I facilitated our in-class activity.  It seemed to go over well.  Everyone seemed to be engaged.  Unfortunately, my survey/needs assessment was not critique as I was the facilitator.  This blog posting will include my needs assessment for my program.  I welcome any comments or suggestions that you may have.  There was one profound issue that sticks out in my mind and it is the needs for instructions on surveys.  Across the board, most people did not include instructions.  I feel this issue is big because lack of instructions will increase the chances of your survey participants misinterpreting the questions asked of them. 

Here is my needs assessment for your review and critique:

My interview took place with a lady by the name of Maggie, which works at Circle Center Adult Day Services.  The goal of this organization is to keep families together as long as possible.  Maggie loves working for this organization.  She believes a positive outlook and sense of humor are both very important to the success of any organization.  She tries to incorporate both of these in her dealings with the staff, participants and families.

This organization was one of the first 100 adult daycare centers in the nation.  They have been serving older adults since 1976. Circle Center Adult Day Services is a partner agency of United Way Services. They are also sponsored by congregations of the Stuart Circle Parish, an ecumenical association of Fan District churches.

Maggie with Circle Center Adult Day Services program plans for frail and functionally impaired older adults living in the local area. Maggie and Circle Center Adult Day Services recognize results measure the quality care and effectiveness they give in order to help their participants and families.  They track this through a yearly confidential survey.  It is mailed to all families using the center in April-May of each year.

By surveying their population, they found that 100 % of their participants are dependent in more than one Activities of Daily Living (ADL) (bathing, dressing, toileting, eating, and ambulation) or they had cognitive/emotional limitations which affected judgment and safety

The biggest hurdle for this organization is the lack of money.  This hurdle enlightens me on, no matter how much a person is willing to do the willingness can quickly become frustration.  For the most part, the participants of the programs are motivated and excited about the programs.  The employees would love to give them even more but sometimes can’t act on a program plan idea.

My interviewee’s approach was a lot different than any model discussed in class because this organization didn’t have a model they followed.  They have no structured way of program planning as is the case with many other organizations. Each program planner is given the autonomy to program plan the way that is most comfortable to them. 

In their organization, program planning can formulate through various avenues such as the staff, participants, and the community.  The program planning staff also attends seminars, read professional material, and get ideas from other facilities to ensure they are offering interesting activities.  

The most important thing I learned through the interview is what may be a hurdle today may not be a hurdle tomorrow.  Unfortunately, program planning can be a moving target for some organizations. 

Generally, implementation of the programs that I am involved with does not have the challenge of disruptive participants.  Sometimes participants(s) within this organization will disrupt an activity and the staff has to re re-direct them to another activity or has to have a staff member work with them one-on-one.  Disruptive participants came as a surprise to me because going into the interview; this is a scenario I had not anticipated.  This type of outburst or re-direction reminded me of early childhood.

This class sent off a light bulb for me.  A backward approach to program planning is brilliant.  It is my opinion, that this approach would alleviate unnecessary fluff.  Program planning in most cases is reaction to a problem.  This approach would address the core of the problem through evaluation questions. 

This class session was very interactive.  My classmates and I participated in a debate about the pros and cons of the legendary Kirkpatrick framework.  His framework is widely know in corporations and unfortunately most companies do not use all levels of the evaluation.  The main argument was his framework is outdated and it needed to come up with the new times, however I am not sure even if the framework is updated if companies would even bother to use the revised framework.  In most corporate environments there is always the excuse is “we don’t have time”.