Needs Assessment
Program Evaluation Types
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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
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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)
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?
Analysis of Need
Why Do We Think There is a Need?
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Normative Need
Felt Need
Expressed Need
Comparative Need
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?
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Will people participate in the program?
Are the barriers insurmountable?
Do we have the expertise?
Do we have the funding?
Resource Analysis
• Funding
– How much
• Staff
– Number
– Skills
– Availability
• Physical resources
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Office space
Phones
Computers
Vehicles
Identifying Potential
Stakeholders
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Funding sources
Administrators
Staff
Community groups
Politicians
Businesses
Unions
Current, past, and future
clients
Needs Assessment Methods
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Existing data
Archival research
Surveys
Interviews
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Individual
Focus groups
Nominal groups
Delphi technique
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
– 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
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22.0
16.3
37.1
18.6
10.0
FOP study
USA Today
Media sources
Published research
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)
• Race by sex
• Overall
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11.7
• Sex
– male
19.3
– female 4.4
• Race
– white
– black
12.7
6.5
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WM
WF
BM
BF
20.9
4.8
11.4
2.0
• Age 25-54
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WM
WF
BM
BF
25.6
6.3
13.5
2.9
The PMR Comparison!
• Proportionate morality ratios
– General population
– White, males 25-54
152
73
• Law enforcement rates are not
higher when compared to the proper
control group
Expected Law Enforcement
Suicide Rate for Ages 25-54
WM
WF
BM
BF
suicide
rate
25.6
6.3
13.5
2.9
% in law
enforcement
72.1
8.9
16.9
2.1
18.46
0.56
2.28
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