Background: Community health efforts often include outreach activities designed to increase awareness and ensure uptake of services or programs. Yet, few comprehensive outreach evaluations exist, particularly those designed to improve access to and use of mental health services. Purpose: This article summarizes the use of two established…

Although higher rates of substance use among young adults aged 16 to 24 are well-established (OAS, 2010), existing workplace substance use prevention and early intervention programs primarily target older workers. These data suggest that workplaces need substance abuse prevention and early intervention programs that are proven to be efficacious…

Key stakeholders who implement Supported Education may find themselves asking two questions: (1) Has Supported Education been implemented as planned?; and (2) Has Supported Education resulted in the expected outcomes? Asking these two questions and using the answers to help improve Supported Education are critical for ensuring the success of one's…

Given today's climate of economic uncertainty and fiscal restraint, organizations providing child and youth mental health services are required to do so with limited resources. Within this context, service providers face added pressure to deliver evidence-based programs and demonstrate program effectiveness. The Ontario Centre of Excellence for…

Latest research on the mental health status of children indicates that schools are key providers of mental health services (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). The push for school mental health services has only increased as stakeholders have begun to recognize the significance of sound mental health as an essential part of…

This paper presents an evaluation model for a partial hospitalization program. The evaluation instrument, the Functional Baseline System (FBS), is presented with its use in assessing program effectiveness and efficiency. (Author)

Consumer satisfaction with mental health services is one of the process objectives inherent in the general goals for community mental health centers funded federally by the National Institute of Mental Health. Programs must demonstrate that patients and other service consumers agree that their needs are being met by existing services and patterns…

The Circles of Care initiative emphasized the importance of developing an outcomes measurement plan that was consonant with the model system of care as well as community values and priorities. This analysis suggests that the Circles of Care grantees achieved this key programmatic objective, but that a major constraint was the tendency of funders,…

An obvious source of information for assessing mental health program effectiveness comes from clients who have received the services and, indeed, much effort has been devoted to developing data collection instruments which are administered to clients upon completion of treatment. To assess the advantages and disadvantages of three treatment…

The P.E.P. Report 1969-1973 focuses on the various findings of the Program Evaluation Project. This chapter deals with the first year development of an integrated program evaluation system for the Adult Outpatient Program, Hennepin County Mental Health Service, Minneapolis, Minnesota. This evaluation system is an extension of and expansion of the…

This paper critiques current models for evaluation of mental health services provided to children and adolescents with emotional disturbances and offers an alternative model. The most popular model, Donabedian's tripartite model, is described. This model separately evaluates three domains: (1) structure (characteristics of the care providers,…

This textbook presents a conceptual and methodological framework for implementing quality assurance programs in mental health services, with specific emphasis on peer and utilization review. Both the content of the review and the methods of accomplishing it are addressed. The early chapters of the book are designed to show the many types and…

This paper summarizes the process of instituting a standardized mental health assessment protocol in a community health treatment program serving maltreated youth. The assessment program was intended to: (1) provide descriptive data regarding the populating utilizing the service; (2) examine the efficacy of therapeutic interventions and monitor…

Proposes a framework for assessing how human service delivery systems function. Identifies factors that influence the ability of agencies to operate as a unified system. Provides an accurate picture of how services are delivered to target populations, and why various systems function as they do. (Author/JAC)

This introductory article provides an overview of the national evaluation conducted within the original 22 grantee communities funded from 1993 to 1999. The history and underlying foundations of the evaluation are presented. Specific evaluation questions and components are outlined, and issues that evolved out of the evaluation process are…