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The Role for Public Funding of Faith‐Based Organizations Delivering Behavioral Health Services: Guideposts for Monitoring and Evaluation
Author(s) -
Kramer Fredrica D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/s10464-010-9351-8
Subject(s) - health psychology , public health , faith , public relations , faith based organizations , business , psychology , medicine , nursing , political science , philosophy , theology
The paper reviews policies promoting faith‐based organizations' (FBO) participation in publicly‐funded programs since the Charitable Choice statute was enacted during the Clinton administration and then additional faith‐based initiatives were implemented by the Bush administration. The paper focuses on research findings on FBO participation in publicly‐funded human service programs under these policies. It then proposes a framework for evaluation to assess the appropriateness of public funding for behavioral health services delivered by FBOs, in order to address: (1) the programmatic and systemic effects resulting from the infusion of new players from the faith community, and the consequences to the profile of services and who gets served; and (2) the content and effectiveness of faith‐infused services as a basis for identifying interventions appropriate for public funding. The analysis considers classification issues, theoretical bases of measured effects of faith‐infused services, and the transferability of faith‐based interventions across religious and secular applications in order to satisfy constitutional issues and client choice.