Individual or personal budgets are part of a growing international trend to encourage greater choice and control over social care services at a time of financial austerity. The authors' evaluation of individual budgets found that levels of allocated resources reflected a range of factors,...

The College Voor Zorgverzekeringen (CVZ) provides guidance to the Dutch healthcare system on funding and use of new pharmaceutical technologies. This study examined the impact of evidence, process and context factors on CVZ decisions in 2004–2009. A data set of CVZ decisions pertaining to...

Mental health problems in childhood have negative effects on individuals and families for potentially many years. Using data from a British birth cohort study, we tested for links between behavioural and emotional problems in childhood, and occupational status and earnings in adulthood,...

Accurate resource-use measurement is challenging within an economic evaluation, but is a fundamental requirement for estimating efficiency. Considerable research effort has been concentrated on the appropriate measurement of outcomes and the policy implications of economic evaluation, while...

BACKGROUND : The need has grown over recent years for economic information on the impacts of child and adolescent mental helath problems and the cost-effectiveness of interventions. METHODS : A range of electronic databases were searched using a predefined search strategy. To identify economic...

Scarcity of resources means that difficult choices have to be made about to use them. Cost-effectiveness evidence provides a way to help decision-makers get ‘best value’ from their resources when choosing between two or more clinical or other interventions. Often it is found that one...

At present six million people are suffering from clinical depression or anxiety disorders, but only a quarter of them are in treatment. NICE Guidelines prescribe the offer of evidence-based psychological therapy, but they are not implemented, due to lack of therapists within the NHS. We...