An attempt was made to determine predictors of service need, use, and outcome among chronically impaired adults and aged who were living in the community and using the home-based, long term care services of the Chronic Illness Center (CIC) of the Cuyahoga County Hospitals (Ohio). Randomly selected consumer service records (N=200) were coded for…

The North Carolina State Legislature made outpatient commitment (OPC) criteria less restrictive than involuntary hospitalization criteria, provided an enforcement mechanism, gave facilities and staff immunity from liability, and allocated funds for OPC patients. Data collected in a state-wide study of civil commitment respondents in North Carolina…

In an era of decreasing funding of the human services sector, it is imperative that the service sector be more effective and efficient. This study examined the outcomes of a management development intervention. Subjects (N=187) were middle managers in the helping professions. The experimental group was composed of 100 managers who voluntarily…

The issue of the perceived success of human services program evaluations is the specific focus of this paper. Five areas that affect the potential for producing effective program evaluation form a framework for discussing factors related to perceived success. The areas include inappropriate conceptualization of what an evaluation can accomplish,…

The growing number of treatment programs for people who drink and drive requires that these programs be clearly understood. The judicial mandate for treatment creates not only a significant opportunity to modify behavior and improve personal and interpersonal functioning, but also brings with it an obligation to implement programs which reflect…

The effectiveness of the community board in the mental health system specifically and in human service systems generally depends, to a large extent, on how the board's role and scope are defined and how its organizational structure and staffing procedures are developed. The development of community boards should be based upon the premises that (1)…

This document presents the final report of the "As Families Grow Older" project, a continuing education program for aging network service providers and family members in 23 counties throughout New Mexico which was designed to promote family well-being. It describes how the project, which was in operation from April 1986 through January 1987,…

A case study evaluated the effectiveness of the Even Start family literacy project, which integrates within a single continuum of service three formerly separate curricular components: adult education, early childhood education, and parent education. A series of case study interviews were conducted over a 4-year period with 11 adult participants…

A 12-month outcome study was conducted on 129 patients discharged from a hospital-based substance abuse treatment program in an effort to identify the progress of patients after treatment, evaluate the treatment program, and improve the program based on the evaluation. Subjects completed two demographic questionnaires and a 12-month post-discharge…

This paper offers a definition for the word "effective" and then discusses implications of research on the environment in relation to designing effective instruction. Similarities and differences involved in designing effective instruction are presented across four different contexts: K-12, higher education, human services, and…

The Gamblers Treatment Clinic (GTC) opened in 1982 as a New York State Office of Mental Health Demonstration Program. The basic premise of the GTC is that excessive gambling is a disorder of impulse control. Treatment, conducted in the community in a time-limited fashion, attempts to uncover the underlying dynamics that precipitate disorders of…

This document describes services for the elderly provided by the Spokane Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) in Spokane, Washington. It begins by stating several reasons that the elderly are often unserved or underserved by health and social service agencies and by noting the need for community efforts to identify and locate the subpopulation of…

Practicum experiences are thought to be a time for honing clinical skills and integrating content course material with clinical practice. Often, however, the range of clinical problems encountered during practica is restricted, limiting the variety of learning experiences available to practicum group members. To provide a wider range of…

Fourteen wilderness and adventure therapy programs in England, Scotland, the United States, and New Zealand were studied to explore critical issues of practice. In view of differences in terminology among countries, various terms and assumptions are defined at length: adventure therapy; wilderness therapy; wilderness-adventure therapy; the…

Issues in interagency collaboration and the experiences of a collaborative effort in a rural, economically depressed county of Colorado are discussed in this paper. The first section reviews the concepts of cooperation and collaboration as they relate to interagency activities and offers a literature review. The second section presents the…