Strutting Down Bradshaw Boulevard: Navigating the Taxonomy of Needs with Carrie and Jonathan
Welcome to a blog post that blends the glitz of the New York skyline with the nitty-gritty of health and community services. Today, we're putting the spotlight on two Bradshaws - Carrie, the ever-fashionable protagonist of Sex and the City, and Jonathan, the British scholar who introduced the Taxonomy of Needs.
If you're scratching your head wondering how these two might connect, hold on to your Manolo Blahniks. We're about to embark on a journey that promises a dash of pop culture, a sprinkle of social policy wisdom, and a whole lot of insights about your organisation's service delivery.
First off, let's touch base with Jonathan Bradshaw, the man who gave us a comprehensive framework for understanding social need. Normative, felt, expressed, and comparative - these four types of need offer a compelling lens to gauge and address the needs of your community.
Now let's do a full pivot and introduce our second Bradshaw - Carrie. She may be more familiar with a cosmo in hand than social policy, but her journey throughout Sex and the City serves as a surprisingly uncanny reflection of Jonathan Bradshaw's taxonomy of needs. In the very least it makes this blog much more interesting!
Not convinced? Keep reading as Carrie’s life breaks it down for us:
1. Normative Need
This is the need defined by some standard or norm set by experts. In Carrie's life, this could be akin to societal expectations for a woman of her age - a stable relationship, a secure job, maybe a child or two. In a health organisation, this could translate into the established standards for community health and wellbeing.
2. Felt Need (or want)
These are the needs as experienced by individuals themselves, not always aligning with societal standards often equated with ‘want’. Carrie's yearning for an extravagant lifestyle in NYC, complete with designer shoes and dresses, is her felt need. In your community, this could be someone's personal perception of what they require, which may not align with established norms.
3. Expressed Need
Here, the felt need has been voiced out or acted upon, a.k.a “Need turned into action”. For Carrie, this might be her decision to write about her relationships and experiences in her column.
In a health and community service context, this could be a group of people reaching out for assistance or voicing their concern about the same issue.
4. Comparative Need
This is identified by comparing services in different areas or among different groups. Remember when Carrie wondered why some relationships (like Charlotte's) seemed to work out easier than hers? That's a comparative need. In your organisation, it might involve comparing and assessing the services you offer with the ones provided in different areas or to different groups.
How does Bradshaw’s Taxonomy of Needs relate to you?
Just as Carrie navigated her way through the bustling streets of Manhattan, we too need to navigate the diverse needs within our communities. Jonathan Bradshaw's Taxonomy of Needs provides us the roadmap to do this effectively.
In order to serve the community, it is imperative that services, policies and programs are as relevant and effective as possible. Needs change over time, which means that services and programs that were once effective may no longer serve the purpose they were intended to. To ensure this, providers of these programs or services can conduct a ‘Needs Assessment’.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies suggests the following benefits of conducting a needs assessment:
A needs assessment contributes to the quality and effectiveness of programs, policies and services through ensuring that they are relevant, practical, credible and appropriate (Sleezer, Fuss-Eft, & Gupta, 2014).
A needs assessment is an important component in an evidence-informed approach because the understanding of community needs provides an evidence-based foundation for a program, policy or service (Hawtin & Percy-Smith, 2007).
A needs assessment can facilitate more prevention and early intervention work through services, policies and programs being less reactive (Baum, 2008).
A needs assessment ensures that services and programs are based on accurate and systematically collected information (Sleezer et al., 2014).
The process of the needs assessment can build relationships among stakeholders and build support for action (Sleezer et al., 2014).
A needs assessment can support evaluation - through developing an understanding of community needs an evaluation can then measure whether these needs were met (Rossi et al., 2004).
When community members are supported to define their own needs through a needs assessment process, this can contribute to citizen empowerment (Ife, 2002).
While we may not have Carrie's flair for fashion or penchant for puns, we can certainly embrace her spirit of curiosity and openness as we seek to understand and address the needs of those we serve. After all, it's our city, our community, and our story to write.
Remember, health and community service delivery might not always be a walk in the park (or a strut down Park Avenue), but with the right perspective, it can be just as rewarding as finding that perfect pair of shoes on a New York City sidewalk.
Until next time, as Carrie would say, "I couldn't help but wonder," what needs will you uncover in your community today?
Is your organisation looking to conduct a needs assessment of its programs or services? Get in touch with us for an obligation-free chat!
Note: This blog was partially written with AI. 