Image: Rachel Skoss presenting at ECU
On November 26 at Edith Cowan University’s South West campus, the University Department of Rural Health South West was pleased to host a workshop presented by Dr Rachel Skoss entitled Program Evaluation for Health and Community Services.
Dr Skoss is a Senior Research Fellow at the Kids Research Institute Australia and has extensive experience in the health, mental health, disability and education sectors. She has conducted numerous evaluations for government and non-government organisations.
33 south west clinicians and researchers attended the workshop and engaged in practical discussions around principles involved in the evaluation of community and hospital program outcomes. Participants had the opportunity to work through their own program-related scenarios and use tools presented to plan structured evaluations of these programs. The distinctions between ‘research’ and ‘evaluation’ were discussed and clarified in terms of purpose and methodologies involved, with overlaps also acknowledged.
The workshop provided opportunity for making new research connections and relationship building within the group and all participants were provided with numerous resources on which to draw for future evaluation endeavours. Overall, a very successful event!
