The Wheel: measuring person wellbeing and programme impact

Dr Fiona O’Reilly: Kerena Consulting & UL, Dublin

Noreen Gumbo, Trócaire Ireland

Deirdre Ni Cheallaigh, Trocaire Ireland

Programme Strategy

.

Trócaire’s HIV programme in Kenya

•Improve the quality of life of adults and children infected and affected by HIV who are living in slum areas of Nairobi and Nakuru.

•Involves:

• increasing access to, and the uptake of, HIV services as well as

• ensuring that those infected and affected by HIV are provided with the care and support they need (physical, psychosocial and socio-economic) to live meaningful lives.

The Wheel

Developed to assess the impact of Trócaire’s programme on the lives of the programme participants.

Each spoke on the Wheel represents one of six life areas.

Each spoke has 4 points or subcategories of information that are scored () or (X) based on information provided by the person living with HIV

• Appointments & treatment adherence • Treatment for and knowledge of opportunistic infections • Drinking safe water

• How to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission • How to practice safe sex • Importance of disclosure to sexual partners

Healthy lifestyle:• Avoiding cigarettes and alcohol • Using mosquito nets • Rest and exercise • Healthy diet and maintaining weight• Belong to a peer group • Enjoy supportive relationships • Feel that they belong positively and productively within their community

Supported to cope emotionally and mentally: • having psychological support at home • attending counselling • not experiencing depression or feelings of guilt or shame

Capacity to generate income and cope economically: • involvement in an income generating activity or employment • avoidance of negative coping strategies

Use in Baseline - 116 Wheels provided

data for Results Based Framework

Targets set Targets set

Used to monitor person progress

- Joseph’s first wheel

Intervention

Joseph’s first & second wheel

End line - 125 Wheels provided comparison with baseline

2012

2014

Data Display

- % of programme participants moving up 1 point/ 2 points on each spoke

Lessons learnt

Identifies person need and programme gaps

ParticipatoryParticipatory

EmpoweringEmpoweringMinimal training needed for use- More needed for aggregating data

Allows quantification for easy programme monitoring

Conclusion

Useful tool that was capable of providing meaningful data to measure person wellbeing , support needs and programme impact.

Participatory method empowering programme workers and People Living with HIV

Could be adapted to measure programme impact of peoples lives in other areas.

Acknowledging

Trócaire Kenya HIV and AIDS Programme, Local partners and participants

For more information

O’Reilly, F., Trocaire; Measuring Change, person wellbeing and programme Impact using the Wheel in

White, S., 2014. Wellbeing and Quality of Life Assessment : A practical guide. Rugby, UK: Practical Action Publishing.

Fiona.oreilly@ul.ie