Jeanette M. Jerrell

Evaluating employee assistance programs: A review of methods, outcomes, and future directions

Renewed interest in assisting troubled employees has led to an upsurge in the development of employee assistance programs, coupled with demands for demonstrable effectiveness. This review examines the nature and scope of these programs, their administrative and methodological context, and the types and outcomes of evaluation studies conducted thus far. Proposals for improving future investigations through a number of different approaches and strategies are then made.

Policy shifts and organizational adaptation: A review of current developments

Changes in the operations and structure of local mental health centers are occurring in response to policy and funding shifts at the state and federal levels. Clinical and administrative staffing changes reflect both cutbacks in funding for traditional outpatient and inpatient services, as well as increases in partial care, community, residential and case management services. Centers are diversifying their funding sources, especially through increased revenues from Medicare-Medicaid sources. Governing boards remain active in center policy making, with few changes in their composition. Current adaptation strategies focus mainly on enhancing efficiency, reviewing service costs, expanding services to more viable markets, and improving business practices. These actions and strategies are compared to findings from previous studies, and their implications are discussed.

Staffing patterns in rural health services for children and adolescents.

This paper reviews several current human resources issues in delivering mental health services to children and adolescents, focusing primarily on the lack of systematic data regarding staff involved in these programs. Data from twenty counties in rural western Pennsylvania are then presented demonstrating the personal, educational, employment, and caseload characteristics of this group of staff, as well as their primary job functions and areas of job satisfaction. Professional staff were likely to have terminal masters degrees and to work primarily in outpatient services, whereas bachelors-level staff were more likely to perform “generalist” functions, often without adequate supervision and clinical training. Paraprofessional staff were most numerous in community residential settings and performed a variety of functions. The implications of these findings for services development and staff training are discussed.

Work satisfaction among rural mental health staff

Previous studies demonstrating low levels of work satisfaction among mental health staff have failed to investigate specific correlates such as employment status, educational and caselood characteristics or to consider differences in a rural organizational context. Responses on 11 work satisfaction items were compared on 16 work and educational characteristics for 47 clinical staff in rural mental health facilities. The correlates of work satisfaction identified are compared to previous job satisfaction studies, and profiles of least and most satisfied staff are discussed.

Evaluation Experience in Business Settings

funding for social programs and their evaluations. Simultaneously, there is a growing cadre of trained evaluators from various discipline bases with well-honed skills in applied research methods offering their services in the marketplace. Furthermore, as the field matures beyond its origin in research methods and social responsibility, it is natural to explore a range of new settings for applications that would benefit from evaluation. The Evaluation Network has devoted attention to these

Evaluation Research Society

The fourth annual meeting of the ERS, held November 19-22, 1980, in Washington, D.C., emphasized evaluation in all phases of the policy process: formulation, implementation, and analysis. Activities related to this theme included an open discussion of the establishment of a &dquo;consortium of policy-relevant associations,&dquo; and symposia on the methodological considerations for enhancing evaluation in the policy process, the role of political science in the evaluation-implementation connection, making evaluation research useful to Congress, influencing social policy through the design of evaluation research, the judicial implications and policy context of

Evaluating a management and organization development effort in mental health agencies.

Although the use of management and organization development techniques in health and human service settings is increasing, there are few systematic studies of their effects. Those which do exist are problematic in many respects. An 18-month program incorporating both management and organization development is described along with the results of its evaluation, which were positive and well-utilized. A discussion of the methods employed, the problems encountered, and the outcomes obtained illustrates that these evaluation efforts are needed and can be useful to program evaluators involved in planned-change efforts.