Research Catalog

Title

A systematic process to facilitate evidence-informed decisionmaking regarding program expansion / Laurie T. Martin, Coreen Farris, David M. Adamson, Robin M. Weinick.

Author

Martin, Laurie T.

Publication

Santa Monica, CA : Rand Corporation, [2014]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Farris, Coreen
• Adamson, David M.
• Weinick, Robin M.
• Rand Corporation issuing body.
• National Defense Research Institute (U.S.) issuing body.

Description

xvi, 70 pages : illustrations; 28 cm.

Summary

While the Department of Defense supports more than 200 psychological health and traumatic brain injury programs, it lacks an approach and process to systematically develop, track, and assess the performance of this portfolio of programs. Further, there is not yet a uniform approach to decisionmaking around program support and expansion of particularly promising, evidence-based programs. This lack of centralized oversight may result in the proliferation of untested programs that are developed without an evidence base; an inefficient use of resources; and added cost and administrative inefficiencies. RAND researchers developed a potential model and tools to support a centralized, systematic, and ongoing process to help in making decisions around continued program support, and by which expansion can be facilitated. This report includes two tools. The first is a Program Abstraction Form, which collects relevant background information from programs and asks explicitly about program effectiveness and the design of the program evaluation used to assess program effectiveness, as a poor evaluation design may lead to incorrect conclusions about the effectiveness of the program. The second is the RAND Program Expansion Tool, which provides a standardized summary of the quality and outcome of a program evaluation. The focus of these tools is on decisionmaking around program expansion, and does not preclude or address initial funding decisions of particularly promising new programs that may not yet have a solid evidence base.

Series Statement

RAND toolkit ; volume 3

Uniform Title

RAND toolkit v. 3.

Alternative Title

RAND toolkit

Subject

• Program Evaluation
• Military Personnel > psychology
• Mental Health Services
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Evaluation Studies as Topic
• Brain Injuries > rehabilitation
• Medical care > United States > Evaluation
• Mental health services > Evaluation
• Brain > Evaluation
• Health services administration > United States
• Evidence-based medicine > Handbooks, manuals, etc
• Mental health services > United States > Evaluation
• Evidence-Based Practice
• United States

Genre/Form

Handbooks and manuals

Note

• "RAND Corporation research report series."--Web page (PDF).
• "Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury."--Title page.
• "National Defense Research Institute."
• "RR-487/3-OSD."--Page 4 of printed paper wrapper.
• "Approved for public release; distribution unlimited."--Title page.
• "Glossary": pages xv-xvi.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-70).

Funding (note)

• "This research was sponsored ... under Contract

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Assessing Programs for Possible Expansion -- Quality of Evaluation -- Program Effectiveness -- Population and Policy Priorities -- Decisionmaking Regarding Program Expansion -- Appendix A: Program Abstraction Form -- Appendix B: The RAND Program Expansion Tool and Instruction Manual -- Appendix C: Instruction Manual for the RAND Program Assessment Tool.

ISBN

• 9780833084170 (pbk.) :
• 0833084178 (pbk.) :

OCLC

867840220

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library