Level and Components of Needs Assessment

Level and Components of Needs Assessment

Needs assessment has been defined as the process of measuring the extent and nature of the needs of a particular target population so that services can respond to them. Needs assessment is, therefore, a valuable tool for informing the planning process.

A good needs assessment process will:

Identify the needs of a target population in a particular area;

Help to prioritise those needs to ensure better planning of local services and more effective allocation of resources;

Develop an implementation plan that outlines how identified needs will be addressed.

The outcome of a needs assessment should be that drug users and their families have their individual assessed needs met, or met more effectively.

There are Two Approaches to Needs Assessment

The first approach establishes the needs of the target population solely on the basis of consultation with users and service providers, without any prior assumptions about what those needs might be.

The second approach assumes, on the basis of other available information, that there is a need, and then tries to determine the best ways of meeting that need among the people who have it.

The Components of Needs Assessment

The process of needs assessment should ordinarily involve the following components:

A review of the existing sources of information relevant to your target population

A profile of existing services and description of client profile

The views of your target population

The views of relevant practitioners and service providers

Analysis and interpretation of the results in order to draw conclusions

Taking action through prioritising the identified needs, appraising the options for meeting those needs, and implementing an action plan including allocation of resources.

Monitoring and evaluation to check that the changes you have implemented are having the desired effect of meeting the needs of your target population.

Advantages of Needs Assessment

A series of methods are available and commonly used in a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for the gathering and subsequent analysis of information related to the job functions and tasks performed by staff potentially in need of training.

Analyzing answers to personal questionnaires.

Interviewing key persons.

Conducting focused workshops with staff in charge of resource assessment at each institute.

Reviewing recent key publications.

Observations of working practices and working conditions in each institute.