Waikato mental health service reorganisation: a model to reduce bed needs?

Abstract

Amongst the most significant problems to confront adult mental health services are, firstly, how to provide sufficient acute beds, and secondly, how to evaluate different service models. Because of the multiple relevant variables and the pressures to provide according to both needs and demands, models of service delivery, as opposed to specific treatments, appear rarely to be evaluated by randomised controlled trials. The more common technique, and very much a second best, is to use historical controls. An alternative is to use groups matched on as many of the variables as possible, and to apply critical inspection of the available data.