The counseling profession heavily focuses on the clients and forget about self-care. It is because they do not create personal time to distress after dealing with different persons' encounters which makes the counselors drain emotionally because of their demanding schedule (In Sangganjanavanich & In Reynolds, 2014). The Self-care program will allow the professionals to reduce their emotional stress levels and slow down their burnout as it is important for counselors and their agencies to use a self-care plan to attain productivity. The paper provides a program evaluation plan for the counselors' Self-care plan.
Evaluation of Self-care Assessment Program
Counseling is emotionally demanding hence it requires counselors to participate in effective self-care practices to reduce the counselor burnout, distress, and impairment. In Sangganjanavanich & In Reynolds (2014) discuss that there are different types of self-care the program will address, which include cognitive, physical, spiritual, and emotional. The program will use all necessary steps to decrease the possibility of counselors to cross off their tasks which can make them ineffective while on duty. Self-care is important because it helps people reduce job-related stress and also think about themselves. The Self-care assessment program will also make counselors realize that they do not give enough time for themselves, especially when they have a tight schedule. The program will find out if counselors consider their well-being by making the realize why they deserve self-care. Additionally, the program will show them the adverse effects of slowing down while on duty. Also, the Self-care program makes the professionals create their time without feeling guilty, schedule their work, make self-care a habit, see the importance of self-care, and have a written basic self-care program.
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In Sangganjanavanich & In Reynolds (2014) argue that the Self-care program will help counselors cater for themselves as it includes cognitive, spiritual, emotional, and physical domains. The cognitive domains include journaling, mindfulness practice, meditation, self-talk awareness, and leisure reading. The program's spiritual domain includes listening to gospel music, reading from the bible scriptures, farming, watch preaching sessions, etc. Regarding the emotional self-care activities, they include laughing, deep breathing, respecting and honouring one's feelings, practicing self-compassion, among others. Finally, the plan's physical domain comprises practicing yoga, attending the gym , maintaining healthy meals, drinking plenty of water, regular massages, etc.
Evaluation Design
The success of the Self-care evaluation needs effective evaluation research design which can address everything in the model (Glennerster & Takavarasha, 2013). The tool the program will use for evaluation is the randomized evaluation, which will help the evaluators the impact of the Self-care program to the counselors while using their counterparts not participating in the plan as a reference point. The evaluation program is important to the Self-care program because it is not easy to observe the effectiveness of the plan without taking random data from all the counselors within and out of the program. The first question the evaluation method seeks to answer is "Can counselors show the effectiveness of Self-care through cognitive, spiritual, emotional, and physical domains?" The second question is "How many counselors find the Self-care program helpful to their well-being and work?"
The randomized evaluation method will depend on data from different people to ensure it scrutinizes the Self- care plan effectively. The evaluation will attain its success from partnering with the organization running the Self-care program, researchers, the research center that employ the evaluation staff, donors of the program, and willing research participants, especially counselors (Glennerster, R., & Takavarasha, 2013). The selection of the participants will follow ethical guidelines to avoid any unnecessary conflicts during the evaluation.
Selected Measures of Outcomes
The Randomized evaluation design will employ two measures of outcomes, which are direct measures and indirect measures. Regarding the direct outcome measures, the design will evaluate each counselors thought on the Self-care program. The measures will provide direct evidence of the counselors' response to the effectiveness of the Self-care plan (Fayers & Machin, 2010). The evaluation will use item or subsection scores to provide evidence about the Self-care program through questionnaires and interviews. Next, it will use systematic evaluation of the counselors' progress by analyzing their sessions with clients, daily schedule, leisure time, etc. Concerning indirect measures of outcome, the randomized evaluation design will evaluate how counselors perceive the Self-care program and the organizations which support the program. Fayers & Machin (2010) assert that the indirect measures the design will use include answers to items that provide evidence on the Self-care program outcome on peer-reviewed surveys. Next, the measures will comprise responses to questions which gives evidence about the Self-care outcome from interviews and surveys developed within the organization . Finally, the measures of outcome will include responses to items that give evidence about the Self-care program on past surveys.
The randomized evaluation design will ascertain the cultural appropriateness of the Self-care outcomes assessment. It is because the design should be culturally appropriate, with validity and reliability the self-care program establishes in the target population, counselors . The design will comprise interventions and questionnaires materials and translate the findings in different languages (Fayers & Machin, 2010). By using culturally appropriate materials to measure the counselors' physical activities will offer data on their real physical activity levels people require to facilitate the promotion of the program while considering their cultural aspects. The design will also measure whether the Self-care program is culturally appropriate through shared norms, values and expectations, and beliefs. Regarding the randomized evaluation design, its measures are valid for the populations in the Self-care program.
Data Collection Plan
The randomized evaluation design will use different forms of communication like email , direct approach, posters, advertisements, etc. to contact its participants. Afterwards, the facilitators of the design will then use seminars and workshops to educate the counselors and other participants about their activity's process. According to Olsen (2012), before the randomized evaluation design process begins, the facilitators will ensure they have the consent of the participants by providing them with a written contract which they should read and sign to accept its details. The data collection plan will involve interviews, surveys and questionnaires, observations, focus groups, records and documentation , case studies, ethnographies, and oral history. All parts of the data collection plan will have three qualified personnel who will take the participants through the required processes and have data collection skills. Also, all the sections will need each participants signature to make it follow the ethical guidelines (Thomson & William, 2014). The concerned data collection personnel will collect random data from all participants in the Self-care program and ensure the privacy of the program evaluation program.
Data Analysis Plan
The randomized research evaluation design will analyze quantitative and qualitative data using unique methods (Olsen, 2012) . Regarding quantitative data, the design will use SWOT analysis (Strengths, weakness, Opportunities and Threat analysis) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Self-care program. Also, the evaluation plan will use conjoint analysis, cross-tabulation analysis, and Totally Unduplicated Reach and Frequency (TURF) analysis to evaluate the data from the Self-care program. Concerning qualitative data, the randomized evaluation design will employ two data analysis approaches, which are inductive and deductive. Using the two methods, the data from the Self-care program facilitators obtain through different qualitative approaches will follow the following steps. Thomson & William (2014) state that the analyzers will transcribe, organize , code, and validate the randomized evaluation design data. After going through all the steps, the design's officials will conclude the data analysis by providing results. The techniques will help the design's facilitators to collect responses from the Self-care program participants.
Reliability, Validity, and Credibility Considerations
The research design will also consider the reliability, validity and credibility of its observations. Regarding reliability, the evaluators will use effective techniques to prove the accuracy of their data by testing their results on a different program (Olsen, 2012). Concerning validity, the evaluation facilitators will ensure their piece of data is truthful. They will do this by making sure their information reflect or measure the claims regarding the Self-care program. Finally, looking at credibility, the randomized evaluation design evaluators will ensure the piece of data concerning the Self-care program is trustworthy. They will attain this through using credible sources for secondary data collection and ensuring their information corresponds to the real situation facing the Self-care program.
References
Fayers, P., & Machin, David. (2010). Randomized Clinical Trials: Design, Practice and Reporting . John Wiley & Sons.
Glennerster, R., & Takavarasha, K. (2013). Running randomized evaluations: A practical guide .
In Sangganjanavanich, V. F., & In Reynolds, C. C. A. (2014). Introduction to Professional Counseling .
Olsen, W. K. (2012). Data collection: Key debates and methods in social research .
Thomson, R. E., & William, J. E. (2014). Data Analysis Methods in Physical Oceanography . Elsevier Science.
