Evaluation of a School-Based Program Designed to Improve the Mental Health in Children: A Collaborative Approach.

This article describes how evaluators and stakeholders could combine their expertise to collaboratively evaluate a program designed to promote mental health in the school environment. The program, called Youth Mental Health First Aid USA (YMHFA), was designed to help young people cope with the early stages of mental health concerns. Specifically, the desired short-term outcomes of this evaluation were to (a) communicate the effectiveness of the program, and (b) determine the effectiveness of the eight-hour training. Data was collected from a survey questionnaire to staff members. Descriptive statistics were used to inform recommendations for the next steps in the development of the program. The Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) was selected in this formative evaluation to actively engage the key stakeholders as collaboration members throughout the evaluation process. Implications for using the MCE in evaluating the mental health program are discussed. Overall, responses showed that the implementation of the mental health program impacted participants' schools positively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]