Clinical outcomes of a children's mental health managed care demonstration

The Fort Bragg Evaluation Project hypothesized that the mental health of children treated in the Demonstration's continuum of care would improve more than that of children receiving traditional mental health services at a comparison site. Program theory further predicted site differences in outcome for certain subgroups of children, such as those with severe mental health problems. These hypotheses were tested at 6-month and 1-year follow-ups in several ways, but results showed only slightly more site differences than expected by chance. For the evaluation sample of N = 984 treated children aged 5-17, site differences favored the Comparison about as often as the Demonstration. Children at both sites improved, but there was no overall superiority in mental health outcomes at the Demonstration.