Awareness, use, and consequences of evaluation data in a community mental health center

A major aspect of the effort of the Mental Health Systems Evaluation Project of the Northwest Denver Community Health Center's has involved studying the utilization of program evaluation data by community mental health center managers and clinicians. The intent of this effort was twofold: to assess the impact of program evaluation feedback in the community mental health center per se; and to investigate factors that influenced this impact. The impact of such input was assessed initially at the level of "subjective utility." Later attempts involved more extended or interactive forms of input and impact assessment. Basic findings to date suggest that program evaluation data are most likely to have impact when directed at the managers most closely involved with the service at issue, and when presented, preferably simply and personally, in ways that insure an understanding of the data and its implications by those receiving it.