Publication year: 2011
Source: Children and Youth Services Review, Available online 17 September 2011
Gareth Furber, Leonie Segal
Specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) must make decisions about what treatments to provide to whom, when, where and how, within limited budgets. This raises questions about how services make such decisions, to best meet the mental health needs of their catchment. The methods and practices of Health Economics, a field with considerable expertise in measuring performance in health systems, can help CAMHS make better informed decisions regarding service provision. This paper identifies a process through a set of focused questions to help CAMHS examine and improve their performance. The aspects covered are service profile, costs, conceptualisation of outcomes and identification of value for money. The recommended approach should help CAMHS redirect resources to maximise benefits for their catchment population.
Highlights
► CAMHS should ask different questions about their performance, particularly about the relationship between service costs and client outcomes. ► There are four simple tasks for CAMHS seeking to self-evaluate performan service description, cost analysis, outcome measurement and linking costs and outcomes. ► By enhancing their capacity to self-evaluate, child and adolescent mental health services have greater potential to inform national policy.