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. 2016 Jan;208 Suppl 56(Suppl 56):s63-70.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.114.153858. Epub 2015 Oct 7.

Evaluation of district mental healthcare plans: the PRIME consortium methodology

Mary J De Silva  1 , Sujit D Rathod  1 , Charlotte Hanlon  1 , Erica Breuer  1 , Dan Chisholm  1 , Abebaw Fekadu  1 , Mark Jordans  1 , Fred Kigozi  1 , Inge Petersen  1 , Rahul Shidhaye  1 , Girmay Medhin  1 , Joshua Ssebunnya  1 , Martin Prince  1 , Graham Thornicroft  1 , Mark Tomlinson  1 , Crick Lund  1 , Vikram Patel  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of district mental healthcare plans: the PRIME consortium methodology

Mary J De Silva et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Few studies have evaluated the implementation and impact of real-world mental health programmes delivered at scale in low-resource settings.

Aims: To describe the cross-country research methods used to evaluate district-level mental healthcare plans (MHCPs) in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa and Uganda.

Method: Multidisciplinary methods conducted at community, health facility and district levels, embedded within a theory of change.

Results: The following designs are employed to evaluate the MHCPs: (a) repeat community-based cross-sectional surveys to measure change in population-level contact coverage; (b) repeat facility-based surveys to assess change in detection of disorders; (c) disorder-specific cohorts to assess the effect on patient outcomes; and (d) multilevel case studies to evaluate the process of implementation.

Conclusions: To evaluate whether and how a health-system-level intervention is effective, multidisciplinary research methods are required at different population levels. Although challenging, such methods may be replicated across diverse settings.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overview of PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME) study designs. MHCP, mental healthcare plan.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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