Innovative Approaches To Mental Health Evaluation

Innovative Approaches to Mental Health Evaluation is a collection of papers that provides a broad range of ideas, methods, and techniques in program administration and evaluation in the field of mental health. The book is organized into 2 sections. Part I, consisting of 8 chapters, presents the necessary evaluation strategies and approaches that effectively address the important mental health issues for the 1980s such as prevention programs; the linking of health and mental health delivery systems; accountability in assuring quality of services; deinstitutionalizing the chronically mentally ill; and providing for greater local participation in mental health program management. Part II, surveys the promising evaluation methods, approaches, and relevant issues that are emerging in the new organizational and political environment of the mental health system. The book will be of good use to mental health administrators, researchers, managers, students, and evaluators.

Innovative Approaches for Difficult-to-Treat Populations makes recommendations for developing and disseminating innovative mental health services. It is geared toward clinicians, administrators, and policy-makers struggling to develop both clinically effective and cost-effective mental health and substance abuse services, and it focuses on services for individuals who use the highest proportion of mental health resources and for whom traditional services have not been effective. These target populations include youth with serious behavioral and emotional disturbances and adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses. The innovative approaches reviewed include diverse treatment methods for differing clinical populations. These varied approaches have several common elements: * Social-ecological theory frameworks* An emphasis on delivering flexible, comprehensive, pragmatic, and goal-oriented interventions in persons' natural environments* Increased accountability on the part of service providers* The transition from centralized to community-based care is discussed, and normalizing a patient's daily routine as an important factor in the success of state-of-the-art community support programs is emphasized Innovative Approaches for Difficult-to-Treat Populations offers mental health professionals and students a firsthand look at the future direction of clinical services. Policy issues necessary to developing and disseminating progressive treatments are addressed, including the downsizing of state psychiatric hospitals, strategies for reforming state mental hospital systems, and ethical issues in research on child and adolescent mental disorders.

The field of health literacy has evolved from early efforts that focused on individuals to its current recognition that health literacy is a multidimensional team and system function. Health literacy includes system demands and complexities as well as individual skills and abilities. While communicating in a health-literate manner is truly important for everyone, it can be especially important for those with mental or behavioral health issues and for the systems and teams that interact with them and treat these individuals. The purpose of the workshop, which was held on July 11, 2018, in Washington, DC, was to explore issues associated with effective communication with individuals with mental or behavioral health issues and to identify ways in which health literacy approaches can facilitate communication. In particular, the workshop aimed to gain a better understanding of how behavioral health and mental health concerns can adversely affect communications between providers and patients and their families. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

This new edition charts the increased range of mental health outcome domains that are now measurable, while reflecting a new emphasis on positive outcomes and recovery, and the central role of the service user's experience.

Foundations of Program Evaluationheralds a thorough exploration of the field of program evaluation--looking back on its origins. By summarizing, comparing, and contrasting the work of seven major theorists of program evaluation, this book provides an important perspective on the current state of evaluation theory and provides suggestions for ways of improving its practice. Beginning in Chapter Two, the authors develop a conceptual framework to analyze how successfully each theory meets the specific criteria of its framework. Each subsequent chapter is devoted to the presentation of the theoretical and practical advice of a significant theorist--Michael Scriven, Donald Campbell, Carol Weiss, Joseph Wholey, Robert Stake, Lee Cronbach, and Peter Rossi.

Discusses prevention and intervention when dealing with children and adolescents with psychiatric illnesses. Examines the impact of alcohol and drug use on these illnesses. 10 chapters and commentary cover conceptual issues in prevention, alcohol and drug related problems, prevention of learning disorders, risk factors in conduct disorders, public policy: risk factor or remedy?, psychiatric disorders in parents as a risk factor for children, post traumatic stress disorders, and prevention issues in youth suicide.