Évaluation des coûts des services de soutien en santé mentale communautaire

Abstract

Despite the high level of expressed interest in assessing costs of health and social services in program evaluation, the application of methodologies to estimate costs still remains relatively rare. The research note describes the application of a methodology developed in England to comprehensively cost health and social services. Using an assessment of services and supports consumed by 90 clients of a community mental health agency in Ottawa, Ontario, the different stages of the methodology are described. Results show the average annual total costs of services and supports used by the clients to be $24,878 per year ($68 per day), with a wide range variability associated with total costs of services for the different clients. The challenges of using this costing methodology in program evaluation are discussed.