Mental Health Service Agencies Research Articles

Assessing the service needs of the discharged psychiatric patient.

In recent years the chronically mentally ill have come to be regarded as a heterogeneous population with a diversity and multiplicity of needs. Social workers assessed a cohort of psychiatric patients being discharged from two state hospitals in terms of their postdischarge service needs. The findings confirmed that these patients needed not only basic mental health services of chemotherapy and counseling but also social rehabilitative services and specialized services such as substance abuse counseling. The data have been utilized by agencies and state and county governmental entities to document the need for new programs and to reorder service priorities. To start a planning process, recommendations on the study findings are being distributed to mental health and human service agencies and family coalitions on a communitywide basis.

Researching psychotherapy effectiveness in mental health service agencies.

The results of psychotherapy outcome research to date are briefly reviewed and the reasons why this research has not had greater impact on the practice of psychotherapy in mental health service agencies are presented. Sources of pressure to conduct evaluation research are enumerated. Involving mental health practitioners in field research is proposed as a means of increasing the relevance of psychotherapy outcome research to service personnel. Difficulties frequently encountered in the planning, data gathering, and implementation of results phases of evaluation projects are discussed and recommendations are made for ameliorating these problems. An improvement-oriented feedback model of program evaluation is presented and the value of individualized measurement, repeated-measures designs, and experimental case studies in maximizing the utilization of research results are discussed.

State-Local Partnership against Addiction: A Report on a Drug Education—Prevention Pilot Project in Metropolitan New York

In 1969–70 the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene received $400,000 in state funds to conduct a drug education pilot program in Metropolitan New York. To provide technical support and promote citizen participation in such a program in high risk areas of Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Rockland County, contracts were made with seven local mental health and social service agencies, which then formed partnerships with community organizations and citizen groups. While drug information activities were not evaded, primary emphasis in each project was placed on dealing with drug-related social and economic problems and finding alternatives to drug abuse. Through site visits, meetings and reports, it was found that while the programs were not directly reaching large numbers of people, high risk groups were receiving intensive attention. Alternatives to drug abuse—employment, recreational, training, and counseling services—were better received than informational programs. Numerous problems and successful approaches were experienced and described. The question of the causes of drug abuse was discussed by each project director.