| Abstract: | The NHS Research and Development Strategy has provided fresh impetus to the traditional interest of mental health practitioners in the evaluation and development of their services. The purpose of the present analysis is to outline a comparative evaluation of two kinds of service for people with enduring mental illness so as to highlight methods that can be used to develop services in keeping with the R & D strategy. Particular attention is given to the instruments that can be used to provide topical, reliable and valid indications of the relative benefits of different services. The illustrative evaluation was based on a sample of 47 service users attending either a traditional inpatient psychiatric hospital ward or a new inpatient unit, based in the community. Measures of these users' stress, coping and strain were recorded before and after up to 3-month periods of care, in addition to information on staff perspectives, client satisfaction and other variables. Statistical analyses indicated the slight superiority of the community-based service, but the lack of a rigorous research design precludes causal inferences. Rather, the study aims to draw out some technical and interpersonal lessons for service developers, in the context of an increasingly ‘effectiveness’-conscious NHS. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
