The Evaluation of the Program

Abstract

The previous chapter addressed the effectiveness of specific components of the Gerontology Program. This chapter addresses the effectiveness of the overall program. It asks a very simple question: Did the program work? In order to begin answering this question, it is necessary to have some specification of the goal or goals of the program. At the risk of oversimplification, the primary goals of the program were to prevent the institutionalization of “at-risk” elderly clients and to return previously institutionalized elderly clients to the community. It must be made clear that the program’s goal was not merely deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization can be achieved by simply releasing clients into the community irrespective of whether these clients are ready to live in the community. As Erickson (1975) has pointed out, programs which are simply directed at discharging people into the community may produce two rather negative outcomes. The first is obvious. Clients are discharged into the community before they are ready and thus become recidivists within a short period of time. This “revolving door” syndrome is not beneficial to the client or to the society which supports mental health institutions.