Evaluating a community-based mental health service focusing on severe mental illness. The Verona experience.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the development of a community-based mental health service, the patterns of care provided by this new service established in 1978 and its costs.


METHODS
The South-Verona Psychiatric Case Register, the South-Verona Outcome Project and studies designed to assess costs provided process and outcome data.


RESULTS
This paper summarizes descriptive statistics as well as the results of some evaluative studies conducted over the last 25 years in Verona, Italy. It reports patterns of care provided over the years by this new, comprehensive community-based service, targeted to the severely mentally ill but available also to all other residents in the area who need mental health care.


CONCLUSIONS
Developing community-based mental health care requires a series of coordinated actions that need to be pursued over a long period of time. Service evaluation, including costs assessment, is an important part of this exercise.
Tansella
M
M
Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health and Service Evaluation, Verona, Italy. michele.tansella@univr.it
Amaddeo
F
F
Burti
L
L
Lasalvia
A
A
Ruggeri
M
M
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