Online Therapy

Write a problem statement for the problem/issue you have selected for your Capstone Project.

PROBLEM STATEMENT Description and EXAMPLES

For the purposes of the Capstone project, the problem statement will serve two purposes: Describe the problem to be addressed, and discuss the critical considerations relevant to the problem.  Below are samples to help illustrate this. The problem statement should be 2 pages at most.  The first paragraph or two will summarize what we know and the next one or two paragraphs will explain the gap in the literature your proposed project seeks to fill.  The rest of the problem statement (in no more than 4 paragraphs) will address how the critical considerations (social change, diversity, globalism, and ethics).

Poor Problem Statement:

There was a problem with the evacuation plan for Hurricane Katrina and many people were left without food and water for several days.  This caused a big mess and major controversy for the government.  Critical considerations included ethics as it was unethical what was done, diversity because mainly the poor blacks were affected, I cant find any global implications and the social change options would be to get a better plan to help those people.

There are many “problems” with this problem statement.  The problem isn’t well defined nor are the facts to support the identified problem.  Description of the critical considerations are too brief and poorly worded. The statement is poorly worded as well. 

Better Problem Statement:

There have been many efforts to analyze the impact of Hurricane Katrina on residents in Louisiana.  One such effort addresses the evacuation plan for the residents of New Orleans.  The evacuation plan that was in place prior to Hurricane Katrina was either inadequate or poorly implemented.  Proof of this is found in the fact that many residents were unable to leave New Orleans prior to the hurricane which lead to many deaths, injuries, and other forms of trauma.  The focus of this capstone project will be in describing and analyzing the impact of the evacuation plan prior to Hurricane Katrina and providing one potential solution.

The critical considerations are relevant in addressing this problem.  Ethical factors relate to whether the evacuation plan was poorly implemented based on financial considerations.  Diversity factors will focus on the fact that a disproportionate majority of people who were not evacuated from New Orleans were ethnic minorities or working class or poor residents of the city.  Globalism factors include how our reaction to this crisis impacted our standing in the global community particularly considering the swift action taken following the tsunami in the Asian Pacific.  Social change factors include how a better organized and implemented evacuation plan may change the impact of the next potential disaster either in New Orleans or elsewhere in the country.

This is a shortened version.  In the problem statement provide as much detail as necessary to explain the problem.  Each critical consideration should be described in 2-3 sentences.