Developing a Service Platform Definition to Promote Evidence-Based Planning and Funding of the Mental Health Service System

Yong Yi Lee, Carla S. Meurk, Meredith G. Harris, Sandra Diminic, Roman W. Scheurer and Harvey A. Whiteford
Additional contact information
Yong Yi Lee: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, via Level 2, Public Health Building, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia
Carla S. Meurk: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, via Level 2, Public Health Building, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia
Meredith G. Harris: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, via Level 2, Public Health Building, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia
Sandra Diminic: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, via Level 2, Public Health Building, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia
Roman W. Scheurer: Policy and Epidemiology Group, Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Queensland Health, via Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, The Park Centre for Mental Health, Locked Bag 500, Sumner Park BC, QLD 4074, Australia
Harvey A. Whiteford: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, via Level 2, Public Health Building, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: Ensuring that a mental health system provides ‘value for money’ requires policy makers to allocate resources to the most cost-effective interventions. Organizing cost-effective interventions into a service delivery framework will require a concept that can guide the mapping of evidence regarding disorder-level interventions to aggregations of services that are meaningful for policy makers. The ‘service platform’ is an emerging concept that could be used to this end, however no explicit definition currently exists in the literature. The aim of this study was to develop a service platform definition that is consistent with how policy makers conceptualize the major elements of the mental health service system and to test the validity and utility of this definition through consultation with mental health policy makers. We derived a provisional definition informed by existing literature and consultation with experienced mental health researchers. Using a modified Delphi method, we obtained feedback from nine Australian policy makers. Respondents provided written answers to a questionnaire eliciting their views on the acceptability, comprehensibility and usefulness of a service platform definition which was subject to qualitative analysis. Overall, respondents understood the definition and found it both acceptable and useful, subject to certain conditions. They also provided suggestions for its improvement. Our findings suggest that the service platform concept could be a useful way of aggregating mental health services as a means for presenting priority setting evidence to policy makers in mental health. However, further development and testing of the concept is required.

Keywords: service platform; health systems; mental health; priority setting; decision making; health planning; health policy; cost-effectiveness; Delphi method; qualitative analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/12/12261/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/12/12261/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:12:p:12261-12282:d:42770

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().