A Cost-Effectiveness Methodology for Community Mental Health Centers: Development and Pilot Test

摘要

Through Federal legislation of the past 15 years, a national network of community mental health centers (CMHCs) has developed. Each center is mandated to provide a wide range of mental health services to the residents of its geographic catchment area. Over the years, there have been efforts to develop accountability systems for these centers to evaluate the extent to which they are meeting their primary goal of providing services which are as relevant, accountable, and cost effective as possible. The present monograph summarizes one such effort. The objectives of the contract were: To develop a conceptual model of cost-effectiveness analysis as it applies to CMHCs; to relate this model to decisionmaking about CMHC services; to develop a generic, computerized cost-effectiveness methodology for implementing the model; to pilot test the resulting methodology with a sample of workload, cost, and outcome data from clients at a particular CMHC; and to assess the feasibility of transferring the methodology to other centers.