In an effort to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families, and communities, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) offers prevention and early intervention programs to residents. To comply with regulations established by California's Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, LACDMH must report on changes in program participants' risk and protective factors that occur as a result of program engagement. LACDMH asked the RAND Corporation for assistance in developing tools to help generate such measures and reports. In this document, RAND researchers describe the process they used and the products they created to assist LACDMH. The process included developing a conceptual framework to guide the selection of appropriate measures of program outcomes and their associated risk and protective factors; assessing and selecting existing measures that meet certain criteria; designing and formatting questionnaires for data collection for three target populations; and creating the Data Entry, Scoring, and Report Tool. The researchers also review the strengths and limitations of their approach and suggest next steps.

This report describes development of a statewide framework for evaluating and monitoring the short- and long-term impact of prevention and early intervention funding for mental health services on the California population. It details the approach, the data sources, and the frameworks developed: an overall approach framework and outcome-specific frameworks.

In 2004, California voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, which was intended to transform California0́9s community mental health system from a crisis-driven system to one that included a focus on prevention and wellness. The vision was that prevention and early intervention (PEI) services comprised the first step in a continuum of services designed to identify early symptoms and prevent mental illness from becoming severe and disabling. Twenty percent of the act0́9s funding was dedicated to PEI services. The act identified seven negative outcomes that PEI programs were intended to reduce: suicide, mental health-related incarcerations, school failure, unemployment, prolonged suffering, homelessness, and removal of children from the home. The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) coordinated with the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA), an independent administrative and fiscal intergovernmental agency, to seek development of a statewide framework for evaluating and monitoring the short- and long-term impact of PEI funding on the population. CalMHSA selected the RAND Corporation to develop a framework for the statewide evaluation. This report describes the approach, the data sources, and the frameworks developed: an overall approach framework and outcome-specific frameworks.

Conference held Sept. 18-19, 2000, Washington, DC. The purpose of the conference was to engage a group of citizens in a thoughtful, meaningful dialogue about issues of prevention, identification, recognition, and referral of children with mental health needs to appropriate, evidence-based treatments or services.

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