Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:1433-1437
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Community support programs: program evaluation and public policy
HC Schulberg
The plight of chronic psychiatric patients in the community has led to a
major federal effort to resolve fragmented and disorganized care. The
Community Support Programs (CSPs) recently funded by NIMH offer the promise
of reducing these difficulties by creating comprehensive human service
systems at the local and state levels. However, the author points out that
these demonstration projects should be evaluated lest they continue to
operate on the basis of rhetoric rather than fact. He presents an
evaluation framework whereby indexes pertinent to each program goal of the
CSPs can be measured and the resulting data used for public policy
purposes.
