Timothy F. Champney

Costs of caring for persons with long-term mental illness in alternative residential settings

Abstract Costs for severely mentally disabled persons receiving housing subsidies and/or case management services or who are in a state hospital were compared in two suburban and rural Ohio counties. Costs assessed included housing, mental health services, medical services, dental services, personal consumption, and total costs. Costs for groups consisting of 16 clients with subsidized housing and intensive case management, 24 with subsidized housing and nonintensive case management, 11 with nonsubsidized/intensive, 11 with nonsubsidized/nonintensive, and 20 with subsidized/treatment team clients were compared with aggregate costs for state hospital patients. Costs were adjusted for differences in client characteristics between groups. Results indicated that in the areas of housing costs, mental health costs, personal-consumption costs, and total costs, there were statistically significant differences among the five community-based groups. More dramatic, total operating costs for the state hospital were at least three times as high.

Synthetic estimation of the distribution of mentally disabled adults for allocations to Ohio's mental health board areas

Various indirect forms of evidence are provided for the accuracy of synthetic estimation of the distribution of severely mentally disabled (SMD) adults across Ohios mental health board areas. The board areas are public mental health jurisdictions which are allocated state funds to serve the needs of SMD adults. Equitable allocation of funds to these areas depends on accurate estimation of the distribution of SMD adults across the areas. The synthetic estimation method involved two steps: (a) ECA-based prevalences of SMD adults by demographic profiles were obtained; (b) prevalences were applied to a board areas demographic mix to yield the estimated SMD count for that area. The main indirect evidence of accuracy showed that the synthetically-estimated percentages across areas agreed closely with the actual percentages of SMD adults enrolled in federal programs. Statistical characteristics of various percentage estimators indicated that reasonably accurate estimation and allocation is not difficult to attain.

Examination Effects in Audiometric Testing of Children

Serial AC threshold data recorded at 6-month intervals in 261 children aged 6 to 18 years have been analyzed for examination effects. After excluding effects of age, linear examination effects are shown by a multivariate analysis of variance for repeated measures and by a regression method. The findings indicate that hearing sensitivity improves with repeated examination. In the present data, the cumulative examination effects for eight examinations at 6-month intervals approximate 3 dB at 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz and 5 dB at 4 and 6 kHz. The effects are larger in the right ear than in the left ear, but there is no significant sex difference. The recorded serial data have been adjusted for the estimated examination effects prior to further analyses.

Validity and Cross-Validity of Metric and Nonmetric Multiple Regression.

Several questions are raised concerning differences between traditional metric mutiple regression, which assumes all variables to be measured on in terval scales, and nonmetric multiple regression, which treats variables measured on any scale. Both models are applied to 30 derivation and cross- validation samples drawn from two sets of empiri cal data composed of ordinally scaled variables. Re sults indicate that the nonmetric model is, on the average, far superior in fitting derivation samples but that it exhibits much more shrinkage than the metric model. The metric technique fits better than the nonmetric in cross-validation samples. In ad dition, results produced by the nonmetric model are more unstable across repeated samples. A probable cause of these results is presented, and the need for further research is discussed.

Comments on the use of multiple roles to maximize the utilization of outcome research

Abstract This paper is a brief comment on the previous paper (Goering & Wasylenki, 1993) about the use of multiple roles in facilitating the use of outcome results. The commentary recounts some important points from the paper, draws some general conclusions about assuming multiple roles, and emphasizes the importance of functioning as an internal evaluator based on personal experience working in state government and on readings from the evaluation literature.