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Feasibility, usefulness, limitations and perspectives of routine outcome assessment: the South Verona Outcome Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2011

Mirella Ruggeri
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Summary

Closing the gap between research and clinical practice is nowadays considered a priority in outcome studies. Survey studies in community settings having as their main aim the multidimensional measure of outcome of mental health care interventions, including the use of standardised instruments administered as part of the routine clinical activities in mental health services, have recently started to be planned in various countries, but have encountered several difficulties. A naturalistic, longitudinal study aimed to assess the outcome of care provided by a community-based mental health service, the South Verona Outcome Project, has been conducted in Italy starting from the beginning of the 90's and is running since then. This paper: a) describes a series of methodological aspects of the South Verona Outcome Project, such as instruments, study design, inclusion and exclusion criteria, training of the staff, and focuses on strategies used so to ensure feasibility of the assessment and good quality of the data; b) summarises some results of the study, characteristics of feed-back provided, and outputs; c) discusses the problems faced, the impact of this approach on service provision, its limitations and future perspectives.

Keywords

treatment outcomescommunity mental health servicesquality of care
Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 2002 , pp. 177 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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