Developing Outcome Strategies in Children's Mental Health
Edited byMario Hernandez, Ph.D., & Sharon Hodges, Ph.D.

Do you know if your services are reaching the intended population? Are those services provided as planned? Are you able to use outcome information to improve service delivery?

This new book is designed to help you explore answers to these questions! Recognizing the value of measuring outcomes in children's mental health services, the authors share with you the realities of developing and sustaining outcome-based evaluation strategies that help you understand what your program has accomplished.

You'll learn what strategies have worked for systems and agencies of all sizes across the country as they share their challenges and successes in tracking information about the populations they serve, the services provided, and the results achieved. You'll see the various methods they've used to capture the information they need, whether it be to evaluate a state mental health system in Vermont or to create a budgeting system in Florida. Then, you'll learn how to take existing databases and adapt them to fit your individual needs—with the useful information you require!

With these real work experiences, you'll discover how to make outcome evaluations a strategy for collecting information that is importantly useful in your work of helping children achieve positive outcomes.

(A volume in the Systems of Care for Children's Mental Health Series.)

Series Preface
Editorial Advisory Board
About the Editors
Contributors
Foreword by Abram Rosenblatt
Introduction
Acknowledgments

I: Frameworks and Current Issues

1. Findings from the Chingsegut Outcomes Retreat
   Mario Hernandez, Sharon Hodges, Teresa M. Nesman, and Heather L. Ringeisen
   
   
2. Theory-Based Accountability
   Mario Hernandez and Sharon Hodges
   
   
3. A Family Empowerment Model of Change
   Ann Vander Stoep, Linda Green, Robert A. Jones, and Charley Huffine
   
   

II: Case Studies and Experiences from the Field

4. Santa Barbara's Mulitagency Integrated System of Care
   Michelle Woodbridge, Michael J. Furlong, J. Manuel Casas, and Todd Sosna
   
   
5. Evaluation Lessons Learned in Vermont
   Theodore A. Tighe, Nancy G. Pandina, John D. Burchard, David P. Kelley, Mariah E. Coe, Janet A. Bramley, and Carrie M. Clough
   
   
6. Florida's Use of Accountable Innovation
   David W. Overstreet, Glen Casel, Teri Saunders, and Mary I. Armstrong
   
   
7. A Magic Growth Formula for Mental Health Services in Santa Cruz County
   Deborah Jacobson and Dane Cervine
   
   

III: Tools, Methods, and Strategies

8. Performance-Based Contracting
   Michael Lahti
   
   
9. Using Strengths-Based Data to Evaluate Children's Mental Health Programs
   Michael H. Epstein, Eileen Dakan, Donald P. Oswald, and James T. Yoe
   
   
10. Using a Three-Phase Decision-Making Model to Integrate Emerging Practices
    Sue Ann Savas and Mary C. Ruffolo
    
    
11. Child Welfare Permanency Outcomes: An Application of the Children's Services Simulation Model
    John D. Fluke, Christopher Graham, Donald J. Baumann, and Jacob A. Esterline
    
    
12. Using Existing Databases to Measure Treatment Outcomes
    Steven M. Banks and John A. Pandiani
    
    

IV: Linking Outcomes to Quality and Utilization

13. Improving Service Quality by Linking Processes to Outcomes
    Rex S. Green
    
    
14. Creating Useful Information in Data-Rich Environments
    Sharon Hodges, Michelle Woodbridge, and Larke Nahme Huang

Index