Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:930-935
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Strategies for evaluating the outcome of community services for the chronically mentally ill
HC Schulberg and E Bromet
A growing number of community support services are being designed for the
chronically mentally ill with the goal of improving this population's
adjustment to noninstitutional settings. Program planners anticipate that a
comprehensive array of psychiatry and other human services will also
benefit families of the mentally ill, staff working with the mentally ill,
and communities in which these persons reside. Given this complex services
delivery model the authors discuss strategies that must be established for
evaluating the effectiveness of community support services. They analyze
the methodological issues in designing pertinent outcome studies and
suggest research priorities for studying the various target populations and
other variables.
