EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF A COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL SUPPORT AND CRISIS RESPONSE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

A behavioral support and crisis response demonstration project authori zed by the Minnesota Legislature in 1992 was evaluated. We described t he demonstration program, its service users, and satisfaction and conc erns with the program of service recipients, their families and carepr oviders, and county case managers. We also provided follow-up data on the outcomes of the first year service users and gave the service outc omes projected by case managers had the program not been established. These projected outcomes were validated by follow-up of a comparison g roup of persons unable to access the program's services. Cost-effectiv eness was computed from costs of establishing and operating the demons tration program and the actual average costs of the services that were projected to otherwise have been used.