Determining client need in a multi-state fetal alcohol syndrome consortium: from training to practice
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BioMed Central
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Determining client need in a multi-state fetal alcohol syndrome consortium: from training to practice Suzanne Christopher*1, Tim Dunnagan1, George Haynes1 and Lili Stiff2 Address: 1Department of Health and Human Development, Herrick Hall, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA and 2Department of Health and Human Development, Haley Road, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA Email: Suzanne Christopher* - [email protected]; Tim Dunnagan - [email protected]; George Haynes - [email protected]; Lili Stiff - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 15 February 2007 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2007, 3:10
doi:10.1186/1744-9081-3-10
Received: 16 September 2005 Accepted: 15 February 2007
This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/3/1/10 © 2007 Christopher et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: A multi-state consortium was developed in the US to conduct baseline data collection and intervention research on fetal alcohol syndrome. Each state employed support specialists whose job it was to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption in women who were at high risk for drinking alcohol during their pregnancy. The purpose of this paper is to report how support specialists in three primarily rural/ frontier states were trained to assess client need and how client need was actually assessed in the field. Methods: A qualitative process evaluation was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted with state staff involved in support specialist training and consortium activities and the support specialists themselves. Inductive analyses were conducted with interview data. Results: Need determination varied by state and for one state within the state. How support specialists were trained to assess need and how need was assessed in the field was mostly congruent. Conclusion: Process evaluation is an effective method for providing practical and useful answers to questions that cannot be answered by outcome evaluation alone.
Background Determining or assessing need is seen as "perhaps the most critical part of program planning" [1] (p. 74). A primary goal in determining need is to find the gaps between what currently exists and what could be, what is desired, or what is an established standard [2,3]. Results from a need determination provide a focus for programs and for intervention strategies [4]. If a person is at or above what could be, is desired, or the established standard, there is no need; if they are below, there is need. There are a multitude of methods to determine client and community need. This paper reports on a process evaluation study that assesses the difference between how paraprofessional sup-
port specialists w
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