PJM 310- Special Project to Counsel Male Drug Addicts – Data Collection Methods

Timeline

May Recruitment of staff
June –July Designing questionnaires and conducting surveys
August Analyzing data
September-December The first session of counseling
January-April The second session of counseling

Outlines the project

The project involves establishing a special project to counsel male drug addicts between 18 and 24 years of age, and to secure full-time employment for each client (or part-time employment for clients who were still in school).

Project start and end date

The project will take about one year beginning May 2015 and will run through to May 2016

Implementation and assessment of each element

Implementation of each element will be done by team leaders, following the agreed upon standards.

Data Collection Method

The method used to collect data include questionnaire, which according to Pawar (2004) is one of the most popular data collection methods. The other method is observation which involves collecting data by observing observable phenomena (Pawar 2004). Questionnaires will be administered manually and electronically via email.

Unbiased information will be collected and used

Collection of unbiased information will be achieved or at least process made right from the beginning through avoiding sampling bias. Causes of sampling bias which lies in the design of the study or data collection procedure will be avoided. In essence sampling strategies such as those based on judgment or conveniences will be given high priority and consideration. This means that avoidance of judgment or conveniences sampling and secondly ensuring that target population is properly defined and also that sampling frame matches it as much as possible (Panzeri, Magri&Carraro, 2008). After collecting the information, it will be analyzed and the findings used to bring or recommend the best strategies for counseling.

Budget

The budget for the will be enormous but its anticipated benefits are numerous as well.   The budget for the project will be as follows.  Data collection specifically administering questionnaire and conducting observation will be approximately $10000 and the entire project is expected to cost $100,000

Necessary project resources (people andproducts)

The necessary resources will include   people and resources. People would include counselors, researchers and medical specialist. Product would include facilities needed such as conference halls.

Quantification of how much identified resources would cost

The above identified resources and which include people and product will be approximately $85,000

Project Management Methods 

The project management methods will include borrowing from other project management techniques   of which the phases of project management will be as follows initiating the project, planning the project, executing the project and closing the project. This will also incorporate use of tools such as PERT and GANTT charts.

Project methods that you used to address theproblem

In order for the counseling program to be effective in accomplishing role, it is guided by clear goals and objectives. This is because the importance of objectives in any given program.  It provides directions.  For this program the goals and objectives are that the counseling should address the symptoms of the drug addiction and the content of the structure of the patient’s ongoing recovery program. There are also clear roles that the counselor will be responsible for and uphold as well. Throughout the counseling program the counselor shall assist the patient admit that they suffer from diseases of chemical addiction or can suffer  from it as well, the counselor shall point out the signs  and symptoms relevant to the patient experience, teach the patient to recognize and rechanneling urge to drug use, monitor and encourage abstinence, help in development of more effective problem solving strategies , encourage the affected to improve self-esteem  through practice of newly acquired coping skills and problem solving strategies (Archives.drugabuse.gov, 2015).

The essence of the project is not to provide medication for the affected but it tries to help the addicts realize that they have a drug problem and thus encourage them to do something about it.  It will therefore be both educational and directional in nature. The program will be a good program in the sense that it will offer options for the addict such as how to become involved in the program as well as how to end the program (Reed, 1994). It will offer addicts a number of positive options on how to fill any voids and avoid drugs use by making them undergo various stages which eventually will lead to termination of drug use.

The program will incorporate a number of prevention principles which can be applied to create effective family, school and community programs. Risks and protective factors, adaptation program are also adhered to while at the same time maintains fidelity to core elements. The important thing to note also is that risk and protective factors are primary targets of effective prevention programs.This prevention program also designed to reach specific populations in their primary setting for instance in school. The primary goal of the program is building new as well as strengthening existing protective factors and reversing or reducing modifiable risk factors in youth.

The program will also incorporate a number of core elements research based programs.  It is established that over the recent years, there have been a number of research based prevention programs have proven effective. They are tested with vigorous designs through diverse communities in a wide variety of settings and also with a wide variety of populations .The most rigorous of them all is that the design tests the program’s effects on a group which is receiving interventions otherwise known as the experimental group and compares it with control group or otherwise known as intervention (National Institute on Drug Abuse 2003).

The core elements of this program that will help in achieving the overall objectives include as follows, structure which is all about the program are structured and organized, content which is how the information, skills and strategies are presented and delivers, which entails how the program is selected or adopted and implemented, which also entails how the project will be evaluated. It is important to note also that program will be adapted to match the community of the particular group of interest. In doing so, the core elements will be retained in order to ensure that the effective aspect of the program remains intact (National Institute on Drug Abuse 2003)

The structure

Under structure, the things that are of concern include program type audience and settings. As National Institute on Drug Abuse (2003) explains, through research it has been proven that a project involving combination of two or more effective programs for instance family and school program is more effective as compared to having a single program alone. Thus in this kind of projects a multicomponent programs will be utilized.

Program Type

Audience

 Setting

Community or universal All youth at the same time Different setting can be used such circular approach where they will sit in a circle  and each of them would be allowed to express their concerns,  state their progress and challenges that they face as well as making commitment on how they will forge ahead despite the challenges.
School based

This will be a selective approach

Different youth will be put under different category depending on their age or school and other factors This can work best after school

 

 

Family This will specifically designed in order to handle high-risk youth. Included in this approach are individual youths and their family members. The setting that will work for this kind of type is clinic as well homes

 

Content

In order for the program to work, other than the structure, the content also should play an important role. The content is therefore composed of information, skills, development, methods and services. Information includes facts about drug abuse, drugs and their effects as well as drugs laws and policies. In essence a combination of information, skills, methods and services yield more effective results (National Institute on Drug Abuse 2003). In terms of methods, they are oriented towards structural change on the side of institutions such as schools and at home where things such as establishment and enforcement of rules on substance abuse. This also incorporate service which is counseling and assistance. One important thing to observe about this program is what Reed (1994) notes that counseling program should never try to offer treatment with medicine to patients; rather it should refer them to a healthcare institution whenever the need arises.

Since the counseling will have a clear structure, it is expected that within the framework of the structure, the content is will highly depend on the patient. The program as well as the counselors will however make effort to address effectively the patient individual’s needs at every point of the counseling stage and at the same time recognizes commonality of many issues in addition and recovery (Archives.drugabuse.gov, 2015).The program will have four different stages which include treatment initiation, early abstinence, maintenance of abstinence and advanced recovery.  In each of these sessions preparation will have to be made where each counselor shall prepare for each session at the beginning of each session,

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