Community-based partnerships are integral to mental health programming and research. However, there are limited published guidelines that apply the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), especially within the context of supporting vulnerable youth populations. This article demonstrates the application of the CBPR principles…

Sustainable community health improvement often requires the implementation of complex interventions in complex systems. Drawing from the "Four Keys to Success" frame (theory, implementation, support, and evaluation), this article describes how we used a formative evaluation approach to foster a learning system capable of monitoring and…

This study systematically reviewed evidence regarding health program and service evaluations in Indigenous contexts. Following the PRISMA guidelines and combining terms for 'Indigenous populations' and 'health programs and services'. Eight principles emerged: Principle 1: Adopting Indigenous led or co-led approaches is vital to balance power…

Many evaluations of programs tend to show few outcomes. One solution to this has been an increasing prominence of the movement that requires programs to implement evidence-based interventions (EBIs). But in a complex world with complex organizations and complex interventions, many challenges have arisen to the implementation of EBIs with fidelity…

The need for evaluation capacity building (ECB) in military psychological health is apparent in light of the proliferation of newly developed, yet untested programs coupled with the lack of internal evaluation expertise. This study addresses these deficiencies by utilizing Preskill and Boyle's multidisciplinary ECB model within a post-traumatic…

In the current climate of increasing fiscal and clinical accountability, information is required about overall program effectiveness using clinical data. These requests present a challenge for programs utilizing single-subject data due to the use of highly individualized behavior plans and behavioral monitoring. Subsequently, the diversity of the…

There is a growing call for evaluation capacity building (ECB); although the area currently lacks a rich research base, there are few robust methods and practice through which to define it. The argument in this article is that the impact of evaluation is mediated by program stakeholders' engagement in evaluation activities. This mediation provides…

In 1997, American Evaluation Association member George Grob, now retired from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and currently President of the Center for Public Program Evaluation, made a testimony on Medicare home health care fraud and abuse before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. The occasion was to announce the…

Increasingly, staff members in community and public health programs and projects are required to undertake evaluation activities. There is, however, limited capacity for, and understanding of, evaluation within this workforce. Building the capability of individual workers and thereby contributing to the overall capacity among the community and…

In the past three decades, program evaluation has sought to more fully engage stakeholders in the evaluative process. But little information has been gathered from stakeholders about how they share in evaluation tasks and whether role sharing leads to confusion or tensions between the evaluator and the stakeholders. This article reports findings…

Using a case example of one of the mental health agencies in Florida, we demonstrate the utility of concept mapping for developing a program logic model and articulating a program theory for program assessment. The results of the concept mapping procedure enabled identification of 100 program services as described in statements by staff. Moreover,…

Describes evaluations of two programs, one designed to improve mental health outcomes for children and adolescents referred for mental health treatment, and the other designed to provide comprehensive mental health services to children and adolescents. In both studies, the effects of systems of care are primarily limited to system level outcomes,…

An important final step in the life cycles of programs and their evaluation involves assessing new programs' or innovations' sustainability. This review and synthesis of 19 empirical studies of the sustainability of American and Canadian health-related programs examines the extent of sustainability achieved and summarizes factors contributing to…

Strengthened the theory of change approach to evaluating a complex social initiative by integrating it with a quasi-experimental comparison group design. Used the approach in an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Urban Health Initiative. Initial findings support the usefulness of the initiative. (SLD)