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In-Depth Information
What are the most intractable mental health
The above questions are useful but they need
to be linked to a commitment on the part of the
agency to engage in measuring and monitoring
performance and outcomes. There are several
steps in this process including:
concerns experienced by our clients?
Questions about resources
How many years of experience do agency
staff have?
What is the range of staff qualifications?•
Obtaining and holding the support of man-
agers and stakeholders
Identifying the questions that the agency
What is a reasonable workload for staff in
a particular service area?
What is the cost of group work activities
wants answered
Defining the criteria to use in answering
and individual therapy?
How many hours of supervision per year
those questions
Understanding the data that needs to be
are provided to new and experienced
staff?
What is the cost per person attending train-
collected
Determining how that data is to be present-
ed and analyzed.
ing programs?
Are some staff more effective in working
The steps in beginning this process are elabo-
rated by Wholey (2004) using the concept of evalu-
ability assessment, that is a process undertaken by
the agency to determine what evaluations might
be useful, explore what evaluations would be
feasible and design evaluations.
with some clients than with others?
Questions about the agency in the commu-
nity
How does our client service profile com-
pare to similar agencies?
What are the social problems in the neigh-
WHat are tHe monitoring anD
interpretative queStionS
about tHe Work We Do?
borhoods served by our agency?
What
are
the
most
urgent
unmet
needs identified by the clients and
community?
What is the network of referrals and how
Administrators and practitioners also have
questions about the quality of their services and
programs and rely on quantitative descriptive
accounts to track and monitor performance on
a regular basis. These questions may relate to
resource management, outputs, activities, pro-
ductivity, service quality, customer satisfaction
(Poister 2004). This information can assist agen-
cies to manage for results. Although the data is
descriptive, it can also supplement more complex
evaluative tools.
Performance monitoring is an important tool in
the management and planning of services bringing
together collection of data, accountability require-
ments, theories of social change and performance
do we work with these agencies?
Questions about policy
How does a particular social policy impact
on the clients in the agency?
What are the challenges for clients in ac-
cessing health and welfare services such
as housing, health services or income
support?
Does the allocation of resources for ser-
vices match the costs of delivering those
services?
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