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Local
Processes of Outcome Evaluation: A Survey of CMHS Grantees
Local Processes of Outcome Evaluation was an effort to learn more about how each of the twenty-two Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) grantees are conceptualizing and implementing a local process of outcome evaluation. This study was conducted as part of the System Accountability Study, a 5-year research effort designed to investigate the impact that utilizing measurable outcomes has on service systems at the Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health (RTC). The RTC believes that the ability of child-serving systems to select and monitor outcomes is an essential element of effective interagency service system coordination and collaboration. Systems that track their own outcomes and share information across their various service components have demonstrated that "children served in systems of care are less likely to receive service in restrictive environments and are less likely to be placed out of their homes, counties, and states" (Stroul 1993: 1).
The System Accountability Study will identify, evaluate, and describe service systems that use exemplary methods of measuring functional outcomes and will provide technical assistance to agencies wishing to develop outcome-driven information systems. The System Accountability Study will describe three exemplary sites across six evaluation procedures:
- Procedures for selecting outcomes and the outcomes themselves;
- Procedures for knowing who is being served relative to whom the system intends to serve;
- Procedures for knowing the form, integrity and cost of services being provided relative to what the system intends to provide;
- Procedures that allow the results of service delivery to be appropriately interpreted;
- Procedures that provide feedback to all key stakeholders;
- Procedures that can affect service delivery in response to results and/or procedures to provide positive feedback when indicated.
Local Processes of Outcome Evaluation focused on the conceptualization and implementation of outcome-based information systems at the twenty-two CMHS sites. These sites received grants to aid in the development of a broad array of community-based and family focused services for children with serious emotional, behavioral, or mental disorders. The grants were designed to promote the development of systems of care that include mental health, child welfare, education, juvenile justice, and other appropriate agencies to meet the multiple and changing needs of children and adolescents and their families. The core evaluation of the CMHS initiative, conducted by Macro International, Inc. and its partner, the University of South Florida, is focused on the child, the system, and the interaction between the two. Descriptive data is being collected on children and families who enter the system of care and outcome data is being gathered on a census or systematic sample of children at each site. Local Processes of Outcome Evaluation focused on how outcomes were being used in CMHS systems of care in a effort to understand how using measurable outcome data affects service planning and delivery.
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