Social Program Evaluation: Definitions and Issues

Bennett, Carl A.; Lumsdaine, Arthur A.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-088850-4.50006-9

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…An attempt to understand the issues in mental health evaluation must come to terms with an ongoing debate among the nation's leading evaluators over appropriate means and objectives for evaluation. This national debate has been characterized as a battle between rigor and responsiveness (Bennett and Lumsdaine, 1975). On the side of rigor, some have argued that decision-oriented, timely, particularistic, and methodological weak studies will have trivial impact, whereas welldesigned studies on generalizable research topics will have long-term impact on the climate of public opinion and the context of future administrative decisions (Scriven, 1977).…”

Section: History Of Evaluation In Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Evaluation in Mental Health

Stevenson

Longabaugh

1980

Eval Rev

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Mental health evaluation is reviewed as a specialized branch of the field program evaluation. Historical influences on the field, current issues and techniques, and unique role requirements for the mental health evaluator are presented in a detailed review of the literature. Role demands and specific evaluation methods are described in relation to several actual and potential evaluator roles, including information monitor, summative judge of program worth, formative collaborator in program development, and change agent. Techniques reviewed include outcome measurement, goal-attainment scaling, costanalytic procedures, epidemiology, ecological approaches, information systems, systems analysis, and peer review. The adoption of metaevaluation procedures to improve the utility of mental health evaluation efforts is advocated. ¡ , n the past two decades, evaluation of social, educational i medical, and mental health programs has been a rapidly ex-';¡ panding, highly valued enterprise. Some professionals in the field have ' tended to view evaluation as a content-free set of methods for judging the worth of a broad variety of programs. Others have evolved more target-specific methodologies in keeping with the specialized objectives and role requirements for evaluations in particular settings. This paper reviews the development of one branch of the evaluation enterprise, that of applications in mental health settings. The guiding thesis of the presentation is that mental health evaluation is, in a number of

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Section: History Of Evaluation In Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%