Enhancing the utilization of evaluation findings

Abstract

It has been widely acknowledged that mental health evaluation findings have not been utilized sufficiently to justify expenditures. This article begins by presenting five suggestions for enhancing the utilization of evaluation recommendations. These suggestions are subsequently reviewed for usefulness as they were applied during a recently conducted evaluation study at a community mental health center in Boulder, Colorado. The authors observe that during the course of the study they found that the consideration of the five steps in the recommendation process augmented the study's utility, and enhanced the impact of the study's findings on various user audiences.