INTRODUCTION

The RWJF Program on Chronic Mental illness created centralized mental health authorities in nine cities as a demonstration project. Evaluati on teams, selected after the project began, and a national program off ice, established to provide technical assistance and to communicate pr ogress and results, worked in tandem with the program staff. The proje ct was evaluated as ''logic model'' to determine the feasibility of ce ntralized authorities and to estimate their effect on various outcomes . One finding was that service reorganization does not cancel out the need to supply funds or mental health care. The problems of delay in t he publication of results and of public officials' reluctance to act w ithout ''definitive'' research data are described, as are the remedies for these difficulties.