Administrative issues in the implementation and evaluation of community mental health programs: A case study

Managing case management: What makes it work?

“…Still, the elements necessary for effective case management are not always captured in program descriptions as they appear in the literature. Many of these descriptions look at the structure and organization of programs, rather than at the important process ingredients (Brekke, 1987; Bond, 1991; Ginsberg, 1991; Graham, 1989; Modrcin, 1988; Finney & Moos, 1984). Recently, several authors have argued that improvement in medical care and case management may require very careful attention to process variables (Intagliata, 1982; Kritchevsky, 1991), and this philosophy is now embodied in the principle of Continuous Quality Improvement that is the basis for current Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations guidelines.…”

Psychiatric services for elderly people: Evaluating system performance

“…It is not a literature review in the usual sense of a systematic exposition and comparison of writings or findings on a topic. There seems to be very little such literature on our topic specific to psychogeriatrics, and much of what does exist is largely descriptive of what is held to be a good practice in particular programmes or institutions (Moak, 1990;Munich, 1990;Ginsberg, 1991) or provides narrowly normative guidance on quality assurance methods (Jessee and Morgan-Williams, 1987;Kamis-Gould et al, 1991), though see Wan (1986) for a discussion on different methodologies for evaluation of long-term geriatric care. This is perhaps not surprising, since mental health services are in general quite difficult to evaluate.…”