Evaluating a community based mental health programme in West Bengal, India: Description of the methodology and lessons learned

• Published in: Evaluation and program planning 2021-08, Vol.87, p.101931, Article 101931
• Main Authors: Tewari, Abha, Raja, Tasneem, Nawkar, Amar, Das Roy, Sarbani, Maulik, Pallab K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Community mental health services; Community programme; Data; Description; Developing countries; Ethics; Evaluation; Health services; India; Integrated care; LDCs; Medical personnel; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental health deployment; Mental health professionals; Mental Health Programs; Mental health services; Mixed method; Nested concurrent design; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Programme evaluation; Research ethics
• ISSN: 0149-7189; 1873-7870
• DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101931

•Describes methods used for evaluating a community-based mental health programme in India.•Describes the use of concurrent nested design with mixed-method approach to rapidly evaluate the programme.•Underlines the challenges of using such a methodology.•Provides an understanding of the importance of programme evaluation in overall service delivery.•Highlights key messages from a multifaceted programme to help future research. Mental disorders impose an enormous burden on society. In developing countries like India, there is a lack of adequate number of trained mental health professionals to provide specialized care and 75–85 % of affected individuals do not have access to appropriate mental health services. The National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) is being implemented by the Government of India to support state governments in providing mental health services in the country. The Urban Mental Health Programme (UMHP) is a pilot initiative that has attempted the integration of mental health services in primary health care settings in two municipal wards in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The overarching aim of this paper is to describe the methodology used for the evaluation of the community based mental health programme and to understand the processes of the programme in terms of barriers and facilitators. The current evaluation is based on a concurrent nested design, where qualitative and quantitative data are both collected at the same time but analysed separately and priority was given to qualitative data. This experience will contribute in helping other researchers to make some evaluations more effective, useful and manageable. Ethics approval was obtained from an institutional ethics committee of an organization (Ekjut) based in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. The evaluation was undertaken by the George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi from February- June 2016.