Lessons from the evaluation of the ACCESS program. Access to Community Care and Effective Services.
The authors summarize the main findings of the ACCESS (Access to Community Care and Effective Services) program and offer lessons for policy makers. Data from studies at the site level and the client level, which were presented in the two previous articles in this issue of Psychiatric Services, are summarized and synthesized with the authors' collective experience with the ACCESS program. The results of the evaluation suggest that although service systems integration can be improved, targeted efforts to implement strategies for integration do not produce better client outcomes. Efforts to integrate service systems can be supported by their effects on some organizational relationships within the mental health service system but not by their widespread effects across human services or their direct effects on clients.
Goldman
Howard H
HH
Department of Psychiatry and Center for Mental Health Services Research, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, 21201, USA. hhgoldman@verizon.net,
Morrissey
Joseph P
JP
Rosenheck
Robert A
RA
Cocozza
Joseph
J
Blasinsky
Margaret
M
Randolph
Frances
F
D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011050:Policy Making; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014481:United States