Background: Community health efforts often include outreach activities designed to increase awareness and ensure uptake of services or programs. Yet, few comprehensive outreach evaluations exist, particularly those designed to improve access to and use of mental health services. Purpose: This article summarizes the use of two established…

A successful demonstration project that used social work students as case managers for the chronically mentally ill is described. An exploratory design was used and the results were positive for clients, students, and the system. (Author/BL)

A training curriculum on mental health and aging was developed and disseminated to 32 natural caregivers throughout a frontier state using a train-the-trainer model. Those certified as trainers included social workers, religious professionals, volunteers, long-term care employees, nurses, home health workers, and professional and informal…

Two training programs in rural Iowa demonstrated community helpers can be trained to function effectively in rural mental health service delivery. Comparable training programs sponsored by the center are currently in progress. Training these natural helpers in interpersonal skills is an important service of community mental health centers. (Author)

Statewide evaluations of mental health services are colossal undertakings, reports of which are few in the published literature. Social workers are often called on to conduct program evaluations of both small- and large-scale mental health systems. A statewide evaluation system was implemented in the state of Georgia in 1999 to measure the impact…

Articles by social work educators on some of the critical issues in community mental health are presented. Examined are some conceptual and program developments related to coordination, continuity of care, and the use of teams in planning and service delivery for community mental health (Lawrence K. Berg). The issue of civil commitment to and…

School reform efforts in North Carolina strive to reflect the understanding that changes in the ways young children and their families are served must be systemic and sustained. Intended to help schools evaluate their current programs and set goals for continued improvement, this guide presents program standards and quality indicators based upon…