Managed cases, drop-ins, drop-outs, and other by-products of mental health care.

Full Abstract

The assertive case management (ACT) study by Bond and colleagues illustrates the problems of evaluating new mental health service modalities applied to multi-dimensional problems. Both characteristics of large urban areas and increasing consumer self-awareness affect implementation of random assignment and follow-up studies. In the study reviewed here, possible lack of fit between study subjects and the control condition, a drop-in center, may have contributed to a high attrition rate. As most of the controls never received the treatment, neither ACT nor the drop-in center were adequately tested. And without explication of how the control condition relates to other peer-oriented interventions, study findings cannot be generalized to self-help. The authors' conclusions concerning self-help are therefore not supported by their findings.

Author information

Author/s: Lovell, A M (AM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comment; Journal Article

Journal: American journal of community psychology (Am J Community Psychol), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1990-Dec; vol 18 (issue 6) : pp 917-21

Dates: Created 1991/06/04; Completed 1991/06/04; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 2091463, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentOn: Am J Community Psychol. 1990 Dec;18(6):865-91. (PMID: 2091459)

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