Introducing techniques for performing cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and cost-benefits analysis (CBA) in mental health and other human services, author Brian T. Yates shows how CEA and CBA can be used for optimizing programs.

Beginning with a description of a model for comprehensive assessment and improvement-oriented analysis of human service systems using CEA and CBA methods, Yates subsequently shows the reader how to analyze each of the links between the expenditure of resources and the achievement of long-term program objectives. Examples of each step in understanding and improving relationships among resources used, procedures, processes induced, and outcomes generated are drawn from Yates's research in residential and outpatient substance abuse programs, nonprofit mental health clinics, residential programs for dependant/neglected urban youth, suicide prevention, and self-management training, among others.

The examples are designed to encourage readers to explore the concepts and techniques by conducting their own quantitative and qualitative analyses of cost, procedure, process, and outcome paths in human services.