Programme-level and system-level health economics considerations

<p>The aims of this chapter are to introduce the methods of economic evaluation as they are applied to mental health services<p><p>at the programme (micro) and systems (macro) levels, to illustrate these methods with examples from recent evaluations, and to discuss their relevance. The aims of an economic evaluation as we interpret them are usually the following:

<p><p><li>to collect data on service utilisation, accommodation, medication, employment and ‘informal care’ in order to calculate the costs associated with each of a number of interventions;</li><p><p><li>to describe the total and component costs, over time and by funding agency or individual, for each intervention; and then to examine variations in total and component costs and their associations with characteristics of individuals and by reference to the nature of alternative treatments or interventions;</li><p><p><li>to collect and analyse data on the outcomes of treatment for individuals; and</li><p><p><li>to analyse, at both aggregate and individual levels, the links between costs, needs (and other individual characteristics) and outcomes.</li>