Measuring the tail of the dog that doesn't bark in the night : the case of the national evaluation of Choose Life (the national strategy and action plan to prevent suicide in Scotland)

Mackenzie, Mhairi and Blamey, Avril and Halliday, Emma and Maxwell, Margaret and McCollam, Allyson and McDaid, David and MacLean, Joanne and Woodhouse, Amy and Platt, Stephen (2007) Measuring the tail of the dog that doesn't bark in the night : the case of the national evaluation of Choose Life (the national strategy and action plan to prevent suicide in Scotland). BMC Public Health, 7: 146.

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Abstract

Learning about the impact of public health policy presents significant challenges for evaluators. These include the nebulous and organic nature of interventions ensuing from policy directives, the tension between long-term goals and short-term interventions, the appropriateness of establishing control groups, and the problems of providing an economic perspective. An example of contemporary policy that has recently been subject to evaluation is the first phase of the innovative Scottish strategy for suicide prevention (Choose Life). DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY: This paper discusses how challenges, such as those above, were made manifest within this programme. After a brief summary of the overarching approach taken to evaluating the first phase of Choose Life, this paper then offers a set of recommendations for policymakers and evaluators on how learning from a second phase might be augmented. These recommendations are likely to have general resonance across a range of policy evaluations as they move from early planning and implementation to more mature phases.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
BMC Public Health
Additional Information:
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2739
Subjects:
?? policy makingorganizational innovationhumanshealth services researchsuicideagedorganizational objectiveschildbehavioral researchhealth policyscotlandchoice behavioradultprogram developmentprogram evaluationguidelines as topicmiddle agedadolescentfemalemal ??
ID Code:
65140
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
10 Jun 2013 10:23
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
28 Nov 2023 11:17