With the emerging international consensus toward community care of the mentally ill, there comes a growing need for meaningful evaluation of services. Redressing the current lack of guidance this book describes how to do mental health service research. Contributors comprehensively review the most recent developments in research design, method and measurement at the level of both whole service systems and individual programs within mental health services. Practical descriptions of comprehensive evaluation projects illustrate each issue and many chapters examine important earlier advances in effective service knowledge as well as future work that will further develop our understanding of meeting patient requirements.

Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.

Community Mental Health Engagement with Racially Diverse Populations summarizes research on reducing mental health disparities in underserved populations through community engagement programs. It discusses the efficacy of such programs with specific populations of people of color and cultures, for specific disorders, and via specific communities. It identifies how and why community engagement works with these populations, how best to set up new community programs, the steps and stakeholders to success, and includes case studies showing successes and the challenges involved. - Identifies how and why these programs achieve success through patient engagement - Explores efficacy with specific ethnicities and cultures - Discusses efficacy of programs through schools, churches, non-profits, and more - Includes case studies with their successes and challenges - Provides guidelines on the development and implementation of community programs

Bringing together treatment and referral advice from existing guidelines, this text aims to improve access to services and recognition of common mental health disorders in adults and provide advice on the principles that need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local care pathways.

This module examines key aspects of monitoring and evaluation as they relate to a mental health policy and plan including how to monitor a plan and the different ways to evaluate a policy and plan. It presents a five-step process for conducting evaluations and explains how results of an evaluation can be utilized to improve policies and plans. The module then provides a detailed case study of a policy and plan of a hypothetical country. It describes various ways that evaluation can be used over a period of time to assess and influence policy and the plan that arises from it including the practical steps involved in policy evaluation and the policy decisions that can be made on the basis of monitoring and evaluations. Also available: 14-module package: WHO Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package - 14 modules Other modules included in the package: Improving Access and Use of Psychotropic Medicines Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policies and Plans Mental Health Policy Plans and Programmes. Updated version Mental Health Context Mental Health Financing Advocacy for Mental Health Quality Improvement for Mental Health Organization of Services for Mental Health Planning and Budgeting to Deliver Services for Mental Health Mental Health Legislation and Human Rights Mental Health Policies and Programmes in the Workplace Mental Health Information Systems Human Resources and Training in Mental Health Monitoring and Evaluation of Mental Health Policies and Plans

In this volume the contributors examine the relationship between quality of life and disabilities with psychosocial concepts like well-being, life satisfaction, difficulties and events and social adjustments in patients with mental disorders.