RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STATE-WIDE EVALUATIONS - LESSONS RELEARNED

This paper draws some conclusions from our experience with the state-wide evaluation of the Washington State Mental Health Reform Act. Some of these lessons will be familiar, but we note that as the scope of the evaluation widens, so too does the complexity and difficulty of the process, and other evaluators can expect similar complications. We also comment on a number of the decisions we made in our project, and on the characteristics of this type of evaluation and evaluation context, in the hope that these reflections might be useful in other situations.