The Ft. Bragg Evaluation Project (FEP), funded by the State of North Carolina and the NIMH, is an ongoing evaluation of an innovative system of children's mental health services. Participants are dependents of military personnel who are eligible for CHAMPUS benefits, and range in age from 5 - 17 when they enter the study. The currently funded project includes four components: an outcome study, a cost study, an implementation study, and a quality study. The resources available for the FEP have resulted in a rich and extensive database reflecting data collected over four waves from over 900 families. The proposed continuation would build on this extensive investment by continuing data collection in two areas, those of psychological/psychosocial outcomes, and cost. In the FEP, participants are assessed every six months over an 18 month time span. The proposed study would continue data collection annually for five years. Over half of the current participants would enter early adulthood before the end of the proposed continuation. Measures of outcome for the young adult clients would be included in a structured interview composed of standardized instruments used in the FEP and a new instrument designed for the study. Data would be collected through computer-assisted telephone interviews, using a modified commercial computer software package. Whereas the FEP cost study focuses on service utilization patterns and their relationship to functioning, the cost component of the proposed continuation would attach individual, family, governmental, and societal costs to functioning status of participants as adults. Thus, an analysis of the longitudinal cost-benefits of mental health services received as a child or adolescent can be conducted for those participants who enter adulthood, while longitudinal data reflecting stability of change associated with services can be analyzed for the children who do not reach the age of 18 before the end of the study ended by the continuation.
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