Purpose of Outcomes measurement Ensure good outcomes for individuals Provide evidence of successful practices Documentation for Funders and policy makers

Levels: Continuum of Measurement Gov/Funding Bodies Service managers Researchers Professional trainers and educators Specialists Therapists and teachers Consumers & Significant others Needs  Outcome  Evidence  Impact Individual  Aggregated Specific  Global Unique  Generic

Continuum of Measurement Impact evaluation: To what extent can changes be attributed to the program? What are the net effects? What are final consequences? Is program worth resources it costs? Evidence: What is the nature & extent of changes? Who is benefiting/not benefiting? How much? What works best? What doesn’t work? What are unintended outcomes? Outcome evaluation: To what extent are desired changes occurring? Goals met? Who is benefiting/not benefiting? How? What seems to work? Not work? What are unintended/additional outcomes? See that the questions we might ask line up with the common types of evaluations: need assessment, process evaluation, outcome evaluation and impact evaluation (and the type of questions inherent in each type) Needs/asset assessment: What are the characteristics, needs, priorities of target population? What are potential barriers/facilitators? What is most appropriate intervention? 3

It is important to…. Provide appropriate data to policy makers and government agencies.

Challenges to assessing outcomes

Challenges to Outcomes Measurement Wrong tools, or no tools, used to measure outcomes Reliability, validity, and administrative burden of measurement instruments (Salter et al. 2005) Difficult to separate specific contribution of different interventions Diverse range of services Service mix unique for each individual Numerous stakeholders with range of interests Resistance to evaluation of service delivery (Smith 1996)