Overview
Week 5 discussion post. Also, read all prompts carefully and address them all. I have attached a template to use for this assignment.
USING A PRACTICE-LEVEL LOGIC MODEL TO FOCUS INTERVENTIONS AND ACHIEVE DESIRED OUTCOMES
While they may be more broadly used to analyze programs, logic models can also be applied in practice, when considering clients’ presenting problems and potential interventions. If you think back to your work earlier in the course with Tiffani, Jake, or Paula, how did you go about determining the intervention based on the problems and needs? Did you see a logical connection in your mind between those elements?
Logic modeling can help to make these connections explicitly clear. For example, perhaps you identify one problem as distrust between parent and adolescent. You observe that the need is a greater sense of trust, and that the underlying causes are history of abusive situations enabled by the parent, history of adolescent lying, and no model of healthy, trust-based parent-adolescent relationship. The intervention, then, might be family therapy to work through the history that has affected trust in the relationship. It might also include parenting classes on repairing a parent-teen relationship. The threads that weave through all of these elements are trust and relationship.
In this Discussion, you create a practice-level logic model of your own, based on the problems and needs that you identified last week.
TO PREPARE
Review the Learning Resources on the logic model, including the Logic Model Table document.
Consider the problems and needs that you identified last week and how those needs might be met by evidence-based interventions applied with clients.
BY DAY 3
Post a completed logic model (in table format) for a practitioner-level intervention based on the problems and needs that you identified last week. Be sure to link the areas across the table.
In the table, describe the types of problems, the client needs, the underlying causes of problems and unmet needs. Then describe interventions that would lead to a change in the presenting conditions. Identify the short- and long-term outcomes that you think would represent an improved condition.
Follow the table format with 1 to 2 paragraphs that elaborate on your practice-level model outline and cite resources that inform your views.
- Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
- oChapter 6, “Needs Assessments” (pp. 115–147)
Luck, K. E., Doucet, S., & Luke, A. (2020). The development of a logic model to guide the planning and evaluation of a navigation center for children and youth with complex care needsLinks to an external site.. Child & Youth Services, 41(4), 327–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2019.1684192
University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development. (n.d.). Developing a logic model or theory of changeLinks to an external site.. In Community toolbox. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/m...
- Discussion: Using a Logic Model to Focus Interventions and Achieve Desired Outcomes
- What is a logic model?
- A logic model is a visual roadmap of ideas, plans, and strategies, to link the needs, available resources, and planned interventions with intended goals and results (outcomes).
It “displays the chain of events that will effect changes and achieve your targeted outcomes” (Barkman, 2000, p. 7).
- Watch this brief video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFhaHCVY_Yo Links to an external site.entitled Logic Models by the Quality Improvement Organization (a division of Medicare/Medicaid). It is designed for health care, but think “social work” when the narrator says “health care” to understand how the concepts fit social service programs.
Why watch the video? It summarizes all the points of the logic model that we will cover this week. This video provides an excellent explanation of the use of the logic model for developing and evaluating programs. We will continue to use this information in this video through this week and next week.
Skim the learning resource, University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development. (n.d.). Developing a logic model or theory of changeLinks to an external site. in Community toolbox.
Pay close attention to the tables in this brief chapter. They are a gold mine of information!
With this background, you will understand how four primary functions of logic models work to assist the development and evaluation of programs. These four primary functions serve to:
help planners to implement plans for programs that address needs of clients with measurable results
assess the capability of the organization to address those needs by identifying resources available to the organization and potential obstacles to achieving the goals of the program
determine criteria for success of the program
provide a framework for evaluating the procedures (processes) and results (outcomes) of the program (We’ll use the logic model to evaluate programs later).
Students often get confused about inputs and outputs of programs. This table shows how they fit together, but it does not contain all the features of the logic model. It's for understanding the basic process only.
Inputs
Outputs
Outcomes
If we have these ideas, skills, and resources AND we have these limitations or obstacles
Then we have the capacity to perform these services or provide these resources (that is, our interventions) to program participants
Then these specific outcomes should result for those involved in the program (that is, the goals of the program)
YOUR TASK
1. Build a logic model, using the template for the practitioner level program found in the learning resources for the week.
You might have to download and open it in your computer to be able to enter information in the boxes. If all else fails, the word "Table" is above the textbox. You can create a table to fit your information directly in your post.
How do I build a logic model for a practitioner level intervention? Your responses should fit in the appropriate box, so use list format instead of sentences.
Box 1. Name the problem. (You identified this in the previous week.)
Box 2. Specify the need to address (You identified this, too.)
Box 3. List the underlying causes or external factors causing or exacerbating the problem.
Box 4. Identify the interventions that your program could use to address the specific need. Keep in mind the external causes that might interfere with the strategies you select. These are the constraints described in the Community toolbox chapter linked above. Consider how to circumvent these obstacles.
Box 5. Select the outcomes you might expect if the need is correctly specified and the interventions address it properly.
Don’t assume perfection – we can dream, but we have to be realistic, too.
How much change, if any, would you expect? In some cases, the goal will be to prevent the situation from getting worse, so the goal might be to prevent change (that is, the type of changes that result in a worsening situation)