Evaluation, Termination and Follow-Up in Generalist Practice Flashcards
Definition of Evaluation:
“A process of determining whether a given change effort was worthwhile”
evaluation is step _ in the Generalist Intervention Model
5
evaluation is designed to determine the extent work was successful with a specific client; at the mezzo level want to know if groups met their goals and for treatment groups, if individual members met their goals; at the macro level may focus on whether entire programs accomplished their purpose.
At the MICRO level
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Evaluation spurred by:
Demands for accountability
Interest in improving practice
“best practices”: ensures that we use knowledge that has been tested through some scientific rigour
External Factors in Evaluation
Governments requiring proof their money (and our tax dollars) was being put to good use
Assurance that the money was accomplishing intended purpose
Users of the service have right to know about program effectiveness
Obstacles to Evaluation
Worker’s themselves: don’t want to know if their work is effective – heightens vulnerability
Workers often too busy for formal evaluation
Many agencies do not emphasize its importance – involves time and resources
Social workers lack training in evaluative measures
The Evaluation Process
Typically evaluations have one of two major thrusts: 1) monitor the ongoing delivery of a program or service (process of giving service), and 2) assess the outcomes of an intervention or program (effectiveness of service)
Formative Evaluation means
ongoing with focus on the process of providing service; can assess if anticipated progress is being achieved and whether the program or service is proceeding as planned
Summative Evaluation means
occurs at end of helping process with focus on whether or not anticipated outcomes have been achieved
Baseline means
measure of the frequency, intensity, or duration of a behavior
Validity means
“the extent to which you are measuring what you think you are measuring”
Reliability means
the extent to which an instrument measures the same phenomenon in the same way each time the measure is used”, produces consistent results over time
Independent Variable means
factor believed responsible for causing certain behaviors, reactions, events such as your intervention
Dependent Variable means
results or outcome of the independent variable, such as outcome of an intervention
Generalizability means
the ability of a set of results in one situation to fit another circumstance or instance
Commonly used methods include surveys, scores on instruments, interviews, collected data, and observations
Desirable to use multiple measures—triangulation are ____
Data gathering methods
Name assesment tools
Valid and reliable instruments already developed for many issues
Example of valid and reliable instruments
For example:
Primary Communication Inventory (PCI)
Single-Subject Designs
research methods aimed at determining whether or not an intervention was successful, most simple is the AB design, with A representing the pre-intervention state and B the intervention
what is this
single subject design
_________ is used when achievement of goal is used as the primary outcome criterion and where goal doesn’t lend itself to the kind of charting associated with single-subject design such as counting behaviors, goal attainment is rated based on degree to which goal was attained; could use 4 or 5 categories of goal attainment from least favorable to most favorable outcome
Attainment Scaling
Attainment Scaling is
used when achievement of goal is used as the primary outcome criterion and where goal doesn’t lend itself to the kind of charting associated with single-subject design such as counting behaviors, goal attainment is rated based on degree to which goal was attained; could use 4 or 5 categories of goal attainment from least favorable to most favorable outcome
Task Achievement Scaling
used to evaluate the degree to which tasks have been accomplished, typically use a 5 point scale ranging from 4 ‘completely achieved’ to 0 ‘no opportunity to work on task’
