The role for public funding of faith-based organizations delivering behavioral health services: guideposts for monitoring and evaluation.
The paper reviews policies promoting faith-based organizations' (FBO) participation in publicly-funded programs since the Charitable Choice statute was enacted during the Clinton administration and then additional faith-based initiatives were implemented by the Bush administration. The paper focuses on research findings on FBO participation in publicly-funded human service programs under these policies. It then proposes a framework for evaluation to assess the appropriateness of public funding for behavioral health services delivered by FBOs, in order to address: (1) the programmatic and systemic effects resulting from the infusion of new players from the faith community, and the consequences to the profile of services and who gets served; and (2) the content and effectiveness of faith-infused services as a basis for identifying interventions appropriate for public funding. The analysis considers classification issues, theoretical bases of measured effects of faith-infused services, and the transferability of faith-based interventions across religious and secular applications in order to satisfy constitutional issues and client choice.
Kramer
Fredrica D
FD
fkramer4@gmail.com
D005380:Financing, Government; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D012067:Religion