Respond to the blog posts of three colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

• Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Make a suggestion to your colleague’s post.

Rasheeda—

In my field experience, I have not addressed an evaluation. The agency uses different ways to evaluate whether clients feel that the services meet their goals. They are done through questionnaires, emails, & one on one to gain feedback from clients. Program outcome can be define as “the state of the target population or the social conditions that a program is expected to have changed” (Rossi et al., 2004, p. 204). This is especially important when working with clients at a domestic violence shelter. As social workers it is important that we continue to learn & understand the needs of the populations that we serve. Many of the clients seem to like the services that they receive. Some have asked for self defense classes. When we have group at the end participants are asked if there is anything that they feel could be different. The one thing that they do continue to bring up is wanting to meet in person. And I believe that my supervisor sent out a survey via email & that was also brought up. In group supervision we discuss how difficult it is for clients not to physically be present for group. While doing it virtual is helpful I feel that the clients want a change of environment & want that personal interaction. But there has been ongoing dialog about starting back up in person support group, but we have to adhere to COVID regulations. But in having these evaluations we can continue to discuss this weekly because group is an important part of the intervention process. Goals & plans are established to work towards a client’s progress. Evaluations allow us to look at our services through the populations we serve & evaluate what can be done to improve or enhance services.

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pce_program_evaluation.htmlChapter 7: Program Evaluation | Principles of Community Engagement | ATSDR. (2018). Cdc.gov.

Jehan—

• An explanation of how you have addressed evaluation or how you might address evaluation in your field education experience

I addressed evaluation in my field placement education by employing Evidence-based practice. As an intern at A Second Chance, Inc, I was informed that the federal funding streams have increasingly been tied to research evidence, particularly around programming related to children and youth. I have learned that the Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a promising framework for practicing social work, an ideal that contributes to effective social interventions, teaching students and practitioners to critically appraise and apply the best available scientific evidence. However, I have observed that these interventions must be matched with the right populations in order to achieve the desired and intended outcomes. Keeping in mind that clients should have access to health care and welfare support should be viewed as a right instead of as an unhealthy dependency. Social workers utilize EBP because it allows for wider use of research. After all, the treatment may be adjusted to the specific context of the client. Wharton and Bolland (2012) indicate that EBP converts one’s need for information into an answerable question, track down the best clinical evidence to answer that question, critically appraise that evidence in terms of its validity, clinical significance, and usefulness; integrate this critical appraisal of research evidence with one’s clinical expertise and the patient’s values and circumstances, and evaluate one’s effectiveness and efficiency in undertaking the four previous steps and strive for self-improvement. While empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are treatment interventions that are applied to the client and have demonstrated positive effects, EBP is considered to be a process where the client’s preferences, the social worker’s expertise, ethical considerations, and the availability of resources are being taken into account.

The agency’s initial program evaluation shows that a program is effective in that particular context, but a successful replication of the program shows that the program can be effective in other contexts. Some EBP resources require that evaluation findings have been replicated in order to achieve the highest tier of evidence.

Wharton, T. C., & Bolland, K. A. (2012). Practitioner perspectives of evidence-based practice. Families in Society, 93(3), 157–164.

LaTonja—

Practice Evaluations

The goal of a practice evaluation is to assess the potential benefits to a client or client system. Before conducting evaluations, social workers must ensure they are abiding by ethical guidelines. Social workers must obtain a signed informed consent and educate clients on their privacy rights (Holosko et al., 2009). Social workers may administer program evaluations to assess intervention effectiveness. Program evaluations may include the problem, intervention(s) used, details about the intervention’s impact, and data interpretation. Data collection techniques for program evaluations may derive from client satisfaction evaluations. Client satisfaction evaluations help providers understand how clients feel about and perceive the services they are receiving (Dudley, 2020).

The results of client satisfaction studies can provide helpful insights and other valuable ideas about improving a program or addressing clients’ misperceptions of programs. Subsequently, the results also offer numerous opportunities for service providers to engage in informal discussions with clients on program-related topics for which they may have unclear views. Such conversations can be conducted without violating confidentiality if they are introduced as general topics deriving from the responses to client satisfaction evaluations (Dudley, 2020). In my field experience, I have conducted brief client satisfaction evaluations at the end of my sessions to ensure that my clients reach their goals and perceive our sessions as helpful.

Holosko, M., Thyer, B., & Danner, J. E. H. (2009). Ethical guidelines for designing and conducting evaluations of social work practice. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 6(4), 348–360. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1080/154…

Dudley, J. R. (2020). Common types of evaluations. In Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
(pp. 78-95)