Evaluation in mental health : a review of the problem of evaluating mental health activities / report of the Subcommittee on Evaluation of Mental Health Activities, Community Services Committee, National Advisory Mental Health Council.

  • United States. National Advisory Mental Health Council. Community Services Committee.
Date:
1955
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Evaluation in mental health : a review of the problem of evaluating mental health activities / report of the Subcommittee on Evaluation of Mental Health Activities, Community Services Committee, National Advisory Mental Health Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tially delinquent boys. The study includes a 10-year followup evalua- tion, involving both experimental and control groups. It was found that there was very little difference between the control groups and the treatment group as to the adjustment of the boys when last known. Within the total group subanalyses show that, in certain cases, the services provided were beneficial. This study is of particular value in pointing up the problems which must be met in carrying on a long- term longitudinal study as well as contributing to more adequate theoretical considerations. Another study presently going on and reported by Havighurst (*792) and Bowman (*rgo) is the Community Youth Development Program. ‘This is an experiment to test “the hypothesis that the com- munity, through local persons appropriately trained, can increase its production of unusually able, creative young people and can reduce its production of socially and personally maladjusted young people.” This is a 10-year project, using as experimental groups one of school- age gifted children and one of maladjusted children, with suitable control groups. Cunningham (zgr) has attempted to show, in terms of dollar costs, the savings accrued through treatment in a mental hygiene clinic of children who would in all probability have otherwise required institu- tional care. Factors Influencing Individual Mental Health Definition: Studies in this group are attempts to identify and com- pare the etiological and precipitating factors in the history of disturbed and nondisturbed, or delinquent and nondelinquent individuals. Here are included, for example, evaluation studies of early child-rear- ing practices, relationships in the family, deprivation and separation, as well as the familial and biological factors included in hereditary, constitutional, racial, and socioeconomic comparisons. The group thus includes both evaluations of practices and studies which attempt to tease out process and causal relationships. Discussion: Progress in understanding individual factors in mental health depends on further fundamental studies and systemization in the area of personality development. The studies of this section seem to yield a consensus that gratification and affectional relationships are superior to deprivation, rejection, and