Individual assignment

Ideas and questions

The motivation to carry out the research came from the Alabama Women’s Commission request to assess the status of senior women in the state.  The purpose of the request was to better understand the issues that the age group faces to help focus on practices that serve the needs of women I the age group. 

 To determine the issues, the study that focused on identifying services available for Alabama women aged 65 and older, best practices for serving the needs of the group and their perceptions of the services was conducted.  The research problem that motivated the study was the “Issues facing Alabama women aged 65 and older.

Theory development

The theory was developed through the various literatures on the topic of needs of women in the age group. In the state, the needs the group ranges broadly across the activities. To capture some of the needs, the researchers used the federal or state policy initiatives addressing some sections of the population.  An example of data collected on federal and state policy initiatives include data from Alabama Department of Public Health and Alabama Department of Human Resources.  The researcher also made use of previous studies conducted by researchers on women on the specific age group. 

Research design

The research made use of mixed method research design where the analysis was conducted using qualitative pattern matching and descriptive and bivariate statistics. A mixed methods design is applicable when either the qualitative or quantitative approach by itself is not adequate to best address the needs of a research problem. When the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative research can provide the best understanding of a research problem, then the mixed method of research is appropriate. In this case, the researcher requires generalizing findings to a population while at the same time requires developing a comprehensive view of the meaning of a concept or phenomenon for individuals.  In the research, the researcher requires first to explore in order to find out what variables to study and then study those variables using a large sample of individuals. The mixed method approach serves the purposes of the research.

Conducting research

Primary data was collected through surveys and interviews.   A two-part research approach was used to identify for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations and government agencies serving women 65 and older across the state, the perceptions of the study group about the services offered as well as additional needs. The population of potential organizations was developed through an internet search and through a list of organizations on file with Area Agencies. A survey on the organization was developed a survey to collect data. The survey was conducted as a Web-based survey using online survey software. The data collected from the organization includes data on services provided, issues facing the specific population, outcomes of these services, the extent the organizations knows, and the methods used to measure the outcomes. 

The interview was conducted on Alabama women of ages 65 and older to identify needs. The interviews were stratified by age, Social Security beneficiary status, race, the region of the state and urban/suburban/rural.  The group of participants interviewed received some type of service through an organization listed in the survey list. Data was exclusively collected from women participating in these organizations and those that do not provide their own consent to be interviewed.  A total of 58 interviews were completed from 15 centers.   The Interviews sought to collect information on the daily lives of the women, their needs, the extent to which programs met their needs, why they participate in the programs, how useful the programs are and additional needs that were not offered by the program.

The interviews conducted in this study took the form of Person-to-person format. The interviews used a general guide approach intended to ensure more focus on key areas with the same general areas of information being collected from each interviewee but still allowing a degree of adaptability and freedom in getting the information from the interviewees. The primary concern of the research is based on the understanding of human experiences at a holistic level. The survey was conducted as a systematic method to gather information from a group of entities for the purpose of creating descriptors of the attributes of the larger population of which are members of the entities.

Data analysis

The researchers made use of Qualitative pattern matching, descriptive, and bivariate statistics. The qualitative pattern was used to arrange the groups of participants in a non-random but potentially describable way.  The data analyzed imply some pattern that can be used on the basis for generating patterns of predictions.  Bivariate analysis was used in the simultaneous analysis of two variables.  The researchers made use of the type of analysis to explore the concept of relationship between two variables, the strength of their association, the association that exist and the differences between two variables and the significance of the differences.  The Bivariate analysis is important in testing simple hypotheses of association but does not determine causality. The researchers used Descriptive Statistics were to present quantitative data in a manageable form.  For example, the overall sample size, sample sizes in subgroups and demographic characteristics such as the average ages.

Conclusion and Reflection

Key Findings

 Alabama Organizations

Most organizations in Alabama operate on a local level providing and serving a single county or a various-county area.  The majority of the organizations providing services are either very large or very small. Approximately half of the organizations operate on budgets below $500,000; have 5 or lesser number of employees and few volunteers. The Government departments rarely participate in service delivery to women aged 65 and above.  50% of the organizations engaged in service provision to the population under study are nonprofits while 25% are private for-profit organizations. Bigger organizations considerably invest in accreditation, licensure and certification for employees and programs serving the studied population.

Alabama Services and Best Practice Settings

From the study, the most valuable services are nutrition, medical care, assistance that helps the group to remain in their own home, assistance with housing, educational programs, transportation and prescription drug expenses. The best practices for service delivery are in urban and rural locations. The Best practice facilities are found where adequate philanthropic resources and support exist.  Best practice facilities that exist in areas with minimal resources exhibit demonstrate two main characteristics.  They exist in areas where resources are available and are run by experts and impassioned executives.  

Alabama Women Participating in Programs and Services

The women in ages 65 and older have a range of personal needs since income, and private retirement benefits are not common in urban and rural settings.  The quality of life of the individuals in this age group is influenced by factors such as personal wealth, health and family wealth.  The needs of women with poor health and few resources are poorly met.   The quality of life is also impacted by factors such employment status, education, and race.  Major metropolitan settings have women with Private retirement benefits beyond Social Security compared to other locations.

Challenges

The major future challenge to this population will be the Lack of resources to sustain funding support and remunerate employees and volunteers. The expensiveness characterized by home services is also a challenge that will face the particular group.

Implications

The need for resources is evident among all organizations providing programs and services.  There is a need to sustain to maintain funding support and remunerate employees and volunteers.  It is important if more organizations are developed outside of government to help in meeting the indicated needs of this group. The need is specifically important as the aging population is increasing dramatically while state and federal budgets are concurrently falling.  Also, there is a need for government involvement.

Reflection

The researchers used a mixed research design as the scientific research to seek to answers a question.  The study analytically uses a set of procedures that are defined prior to the exercise to answer questions, to collect evidence and to produces findings that were not predetermined and produces findings that are relevant beyond the boundaries of the study. The Qualitative factor in the research was important in describing variations and explaining the relationship between factors as well as describing individual experiences. Primary data was collected through surveys and interviews while the analysis was conducted using descriptive and bivariate statistics.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in graduate paper writing service if you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom research paper writing service.