Brian Yates - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Brian Yates

Journal of Child and Family Studies, Feb 20, 2021

Journal of Adolescent Health, 2008

Social Work & Social Sciences Review, Nov 3, 2019

BMC Health Services Research

Background Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the highest socio-economic burden of men... more Background Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the highest socio-economic burden of mental health disorders, yet the fewest resources for treatment. Recently, many intervention strategies, including the use of brief, scalable interventions, have emerged as ways of reducing the mental health treatment gap in LMICs. But how do decision makers prioritize and optimize the allocation of limited resources? One approach is through the evaluation of delivery costs alongside intervention effectiveness of various types of interventions. Here, we evaluate the cost-effectiveness of Shamiri, a group– and school–based intervention for adolescent depression and anxiety that is delivered by lay providers and that teaches growth mindset, gratitude, and value affirmation. Methods We estimated the cost-effectiveness of Shamiri using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) guidelines for economic evaluations. Changes in depression and anxiety were estimated us...

The quality of foster care varies widely from place to place. Several programs have been develope... more The quality of foster care varies widely from place to place. Several programs have been developed to improve the quality of foster care, but few have been widely adopted, perhaps because of cost. A new approach, called the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI), aims to improve the quality of foster care at low cost by creating positive perceptions and empowering people already working with foster children, including foster parents and caseworkers. This report summarizes the impact of QPI in Florida, the only place where QPI has been in place long enough to study using available data. In Florida, QPI is associated with shorter stays in foster care for the children who were reunified. Though data do not allow a complete cost-benefit analysis for Florida, it is possible to estimate the likely budgetary impact of QPI if it were to have similar effects in states where it is beginning to be implemented. In California, for example, savings are likely to be 2 to 5 times greater than cost. Nat...

Objective: To evaluate the costs and cost-effectiveness of Shamiri-Digital, an online single-sess... more Objective: To evaluate the costs and cost-effectiveness of Shamiri-Digital, an online single-session intervention (SSI) for depression among Kenyan adolescents. Method: Data were drawn from a randomized clinical trial with n=103 Kenyan high school students (64% female, Mage=15.5). All students were eligible to participate, regardless of baseline depression symptomatology. We estimated delivery costs in 2020 US dollars from multiple perspectives. To account for uncertainty, we performed sensitivity analyses with different cost assumptions and definitions of effectiveness. Using number needed to treat (NNT) estimates, we also evaluated the cost required to achieve a clinically meaningful reduction in depressive symptoms.Results: In the base-case (the most realistic cost estimate), it cost US $3.57 per student to deliver Shamiri-Digital. Depending on the definition of clinically meaningful improvement, 7.1 to 9.7 students needed to receive the intervention for one student to experience...

Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 2018

The current paper is a commentary on the Standards of Evidence for Conducting and Reporting Econo... more The current paper is a commentary on the Standards of Evidence for Conducting and Reporting Economic Evaluations in Prevention Science (Crowley et al. 2018). Although the standards got a lot right, some important issues were not addressed or could be explored further. Measuring rather than modeling is encouraged whenever possible. That also is in keeping with the approach taken by many prevention researchers. Pre-program planning for collection of data on resources used by individual participants (i.e., costs) is recommended, along with devotion of evaluation resources to cost assessment throughout program implementation. A "cost study" should never be an afterthought tacked on as a later aim in a research proposal. Needing inclusion or enhancement in the standards, however, are several key concepts, starting with the often-confused distinction between costs and outcomes. The importance of collecting data on individual-level variability in resource use, i.e., costs, needs ...

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2017

Gender-sensitive services (GSS) attempt to make substance use treatment better for women, but at ... more Gender-sensitive services (GSS) attempt to make substance use treatment better for women, but at what cost and with what results? We sought answers to these questions in a federally-funded study by measuring separately the patient and provider costs of adding GSS, outcomes, and costoutcome relationships for 12 mixed-gender intensive inpatient programs (IIP) that varied in amounts and types of GSS. GSS costs to female inpatients included time devoted to GSS and expenses for care of dependents while in the IIP. GSS costs to providers included time spent with patients, indirect services, treatment facilities, equipment, and materials. Offering more GSS was expected to consume more patient and provider resources. Offering more GSS also was expected to enhance outcomes and cost-outcome relationships. We found that average GSS costs to patients at the IIPs were $585

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2016

BackgroundCognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence‐based treatment for alcohol use disor... more BackgroundCognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence‐based treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUDs), yet is rarely implemented with high fidelity in clinical practice. Computer‐based delivery of CBT offers the potential to address dissemination challenges, but to date there have been no evaluations of a web‐based CBT program for alcohol use within a clinical sample.MethodsThis study randomized treatment‐seeking individuals with a current AUD to 1 of 3 treatments at a community outpatient facility: (i) standard treatment as usual (TAU); (ii) TAU plus on‐site access to a computerized CBT targeting alcohol use (TAU + CBT4CBT); or (iii) CBT4CBT plus brief weekly clinical monitoring (CBT4CBT + monitoring). Participant alcohol use was assessed weekly during an 8‐week treatment period, as well as 1, 3, and 6 months after treatment.ResultsSixty‐eight individuals (65% male; 54% African American) were randomized (TAU = 22; TAU + CBT4CBT = 22; CBT4CBT + monitoring = 24). There were si...

Journal of Community Psychology, 2006

Mentoring programs for youth have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years and in many im... more Mentoring programs for youth have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years and in many important respects reflect core principles of community psychology. Mentoring of youth is a complex phenomenon, however, with a range of significant processes occurring at the levels of individual youth and their mentors, youth–mentor relationships and other interpersonal systems, programs, and the larger policy context. The research methods used to study youth mentoring need to be well suited to capturing this complexity. In this article, we argue, furthermore, that investigations of youth mentoring relationships and programs should be tailored to address concerns associated with each major phase of the intervention research cycle (i.e., preintervention, intervention, and preventive service systems research). Existing research pertinent to these differing phases frequently has not employed state‐of‐the‐art methodology in the areas of sampling, design, assessment, and analysis. We also fin...

Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2009

Journal of Affective Disorders, 2007

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) episodes will recur annually without effective inte... more Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) episodes will recur annually without effective intervention. Effectiveness of such interventions is traditionally measured with depression-specific tools (e.g., Beck Depression Inventory 2nd Edition; BDI-II). In a climate of potentially scarce resources, generic outcomes, such as Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), are recommended for cost-effectiveness research. For treatments to be deemed cost-effective, they must show effectiveness relative to each other and relative to interventions across other disorders. To date, QALYs have not been used to determine effectiveness of SAD treatments. Given the recurrent nature of SAD, QALYs, which weight quality of life with time, are an ideal SAD treatment outcome. Method: A method to assess QALYs for SAD was developed using pilot clinical trial data. The method estimated health utilities, a measure of quality of life for a QALY, by anchoring pilot BDI-II data from the SAD clinical trial with previously derived health utilities for nonseasonal depression. Results: Relative to no treatment, median QALYs gained ranged from 0.11-0.18 over 1 year, depending on the intervention assessed. Discussion: Any treatment for SAD must compete with spontaneous spring remission, as illness severity attenuates in the spring. Limitations: Health utilities were estimated from the depression literature, and potential side effects from SAD treatments were not included in the estimates. The clinical trial time horizon was limited to 1-year. Conclusions: The proposed method offers researchers a tool to transform SAD efficacy data into a generic outcome for use in costeffectiveness analysis of SAD treatments.

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2002

Evaluation and Program Planning, 1997

The Scientist-Manager-Practitioner and Cost - Procedure - Process - Outcome Analysis Cost Assessm... more The Scientist-Manager-Practitioner and Cost - Procedure - Process - Outcome Analysis Cost Assessment Measuring the Value of Resources Used Monitoring Procedures, Processes, and Procedure - Process Relationships Evaluating Outcomes Effectiveness and Benefits Describing and Improving Cost - Procedure - Process - Outcome Relationships

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2009

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the a... more This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit:

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2017

The conclusion of this special issue on Social Return On Investment (SROI) begins with a summary ... more The conclusion of this special issue on Social Return On Investment (SROI) begins with a summary of both advantages and problems of SROI, many of which were identified in preceding articles. We also offer potential solutions for some of these problems that can be derived from standard evaluation practices and that are becoming expected in SROIs that follow guidances from international SROI networks. A remaining concern about SROI is that we do not yet know if SROI itself adds sufficient benefit to programs to justify its cost. Two frameworks for this proposed metaevaluation of SROI are suggested, the first comparing benefits to costs summatively (the resource → outcome model). The second framework evaluates costs and benefits according to how much they contribute to or are caused by the different activities of SROI. This resource → activity → outcome model could enable outcomes of SROI to be maximized within resource constraints (such as budget and time limits) on SROI. Alternatively, with the information from this model could help minimize the costs of achieving a specific level of return on investment from conducting SROI. Possible problems with this metaevaluation of SROI are discussed. keywords: social return on investment; SROI; metaevaluation; cost-inclusive evaluation; resource-activity-process-outcome analysis model Advantages of SROI Versus Other Evaluation Methods SROI is likely to have both positive and negative outcomes when it is used: both can be more extreme than other forms of evaluation that consider neither the monetary value of the results of an intervention, nor the monetary value of the resources consumed to provide that intervention. Table 1 summarizes some of the more prominent advantages, i.e., positive outcomes, that SROI seems likely to achieve, relative to other evaluation practices, as detailed in articles of this special issue. Of course, SROI stands apart from most other methods of evaluation in that it collects and analyzes information about the social value of resources consumed by programs. Most evaluations simply do

Journal of Child and Family Studies, Feb 20, 2021

Journal of Adolescent Health, 2008

Social Work & Social Sciences Review, Nov 3, 2019

BMC Health Services Research

Background Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the highest socio-economic burden of men... more Background Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the highest socio-economic burden of mental health disorders, yet the fewest resources for treatment. Recently, many intervention strategies, including the use of brief, scalable interventions, have emerged as ways of reducing the mental health treatment gap in LMICs. But how do decision makers prioritize and optimize the allocation of limited resources? One approach is through the evaluation of delivery costs alongside intervention effectiveness of various types of interventions. Here, we evaluate the cost-effectiveness of Shamiri, a group– and school–based intervention for adolescent depression and anxiety that is delivered by lay providers and that teaches growth mindset, gratitude, and value affirmation. Methods We estimated the cost-effectiveness of Shamiri using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) guidelines for economic evaluations. Changes in depression and anxiety were estimated us...

The quality of foster care varies widely from place to place. Several programs have been develope... more The quality of foster care varies widely from place to place. Several programs have been developed to improve the quality of foster care, but few have been widely adopted, perhaps because of cost. A new approach, called the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI), aims to improve the quality of foster care at low cost by creating positive perceptions and empowering people already working with foster children, including foster parents and caseworkers. This report summarizes the impact of QPI in Florida, the only place where QPI has been in place long enough to study using available data. In Florida, QPI is associated with shorter stays in foster care for the children who were reunified. Though data do not allow a complete cost-benefit analysis for Florida, it is possible to estimate the likely budgetary impact of QPI if it were to have similar effects in states where it is beginning to be implemented. In California, for example, savings are likely to be 2 to 5 times greater than cost. Nat...

Objective: To evaluate the costs and cost-effectiveness of Shamiri-Digital, an online single-sess... more Objective: To evaluate the costs and cost-effectiveness of Shamiri-Digital, an online single-session intervention (SSI) for depression among Kenyan adolescents. Method: Data were drawn from a randomized clinical trial with n=103 Kenyan high school students (64% female, Mage=15.5). All students were eligible to participate, regardless of baseline depression symptomatology. We estimated delivery costs in 2020 US dollars from multiple perspectives. To account for uncertainty, we performed sensitivity analyses with different cost assumptions and definitions of effectiveness. Using number needed to treat (NNT) estimates, we also evaluated the cost required to achieve a clinically meaningful reduction in depressive symptoms.Results: In the base-case (the most realistic cost estimate), it cost US $3.57 per student to deliver Shamiri-Digital. Depending on the definition of clinically meaningful improvement, 7.1 to 9.7 students needed to receive the intervention for one student to experience...

Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 2018

The current paper is a commentary on the Standards of Evidence for Conducting and Reporting Econo... more The current paper is a commentary on the Standards of Evidence for Conducting and Reporting Economic Evaluations in Prevention Science (Crowley et al. 2018). Although the standards got a lot right, some important issues were not addressed or could be explored further. Measuring rather than modeling is encouraged whenever possible. That also is in keeping with the approach taken by many prevention researchers. Pre-program planning for collection of data on resources used by individual participants (i.e., costs) is recommended, along with devotion of evaluation resources to cost assessment throughout program implementation. A "cost study" should never be an afterthought tacked on as a later aim in a research proposal. Needing inclusion or enhancement in the standards, however, are several key concepts, starting with the often-confused distinction between costs and outcomes. The importance of collecting data on individual-level variability in resource use, i.e., costs, needs ...

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2017

Gender-sensitive services (GSS) attempt to make substance use treatment better for women, but at ... more Gender-sensitive services (GSS) attempt to make substance use treatment better for women, but at what cost and with what results? We sought answers to these questions in a federally-funded study by measuring separately the patient and provider costs of adding GSS, outcomes, and costoutcome relationships for 12 mixed-gender intensive inpatient programs (IIP) that varied in amounts and types of GSS. GSS costs to female inpatients included time devoted to GSS and expenses for care of dependents while in the IIP. GSS costs to providers included time spent with patients, indirect services, treatment facilities, equipment, and materials. Offering more GSS was expected to consume more patient and provider resources. Offering more GSS also was expected to enhance outcomes and cost-outcome relationships. We found that average GSS costs to patients at the IIPs were $585

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2016

BackgroundCognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence‐based treatment for alcohol use disor... more BackgroundCognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence‐based treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUDs), yet is rarely implemented with high fidelity in clinical practice. Computer‐based delivery of CBT offers the potential to address dissemination challenges, but to date there have been no evaluations of a web‐based CBT program for alcohol use within a clinical sample.MethodsThis study randomized treatment‐seeking individuals with a current AUD to 1 of 3 treatments at a community outpatient facility: (i) standard treatment as usual (TAU); (ii) TAU plus on‐site access to a computerized CBT targeting alcohol use (TAU + CBT4CBT); or (iii) CBT4CBT plus brief weekly clinical monitoring (CBT4CBT + monitoring). Participant alcohol use was assessed weekly during an 8‐week treatment period, as well as 1, 3, and 6 months after treatment.ResultsSixty‐eight individuals (65% male; 54% African American) were randomized (TAU = 22; TAU + CBT4CBT = 22; CBT4CBT + monitoring = 24). There were si...

Journal of Community Psychology, 2006

Mentoring programs for youth have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years and in many im... more Mentoring programs for youth have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years and in many important respects reflect core principles of community psychology. Mentoring of youth is a complex phenomenon, however, with a range of significant processes occurring at the levels of individual youth and their mentors, youth–mentor relationships and other interpersonal systems, programs, and the larger policy context. The research methods used to study youth mentoring need to be well suited to capturing this complexity. In this article, we argue, furthermore, that investigations of youth mentoring relationships and programs should be tailored to address concerns associated with each major phase of the intervention research cycle (i.e., preintervention, intervention, and preventive service systems research). Existing research pertinent to these differing phases frequently has not employed state‐of‐the‐art methodology in the areas of sampling, design, assessment, and analysis. We also fin...

Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2009

Journal of Affective Disorders, 2007

Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) episodes will recur annually without effective inte... more Background: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) episodes will recur annually without effective intervention. Effectiveness of such interventions is traditionally measured with depression-specific tools (e.g., Beck Depression Inventory 2nd Edition; BDI-II). In a climate of potentially scarce resources, generic outcomes, such as Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), are recommended for cost-effectiveness research. For treatments to be deemed cost-effective, they must show effectiveness relative to each other and relative to interventions across other disorders. To date, QALYs have not been used to determine effectiveness of SAD treatments. Given the recurrent nature of SAD, QALYs, which weight quality of life with time, are an ideal SAD treatment outcome. Method: A method to assess QALYs for SAD was developed using pilot clinical trial data. The method estimated health utilities, a measure of quality of life for a QALY, by anchoring pilot BDI-II data from the SAD clinical trial with previously derived health utilities for nonseasonal depression. Results: Relative to no treatment, median QALYs gained ranged from 0.11-0.18 over 1 year, depending on the intervention assessed. Discussion: Any treatment for SAD must compete with spontaneous spring remission, as illness severity attenuates in the spring. Limitations: Health utilities were estimated from the depression literature, and potential side effects from SAD treatments were not included in the estimates. The clinical trial time horizon was limited to 1-year. Conclusions: The proposed method offers researchers a tool to transform SAD efficacy data into a generic outcome for use in costeffectiveness analysis of SAD treatments.

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2002

Evaluation and Program Planning, 1997

The Scientist-Manager-Practitioner and Cost - Procedure - Process - Outcome Analysis Cost Assessm... more The Scientist-Manager-Practitioner and Cost - Procedure - Process - Outcome Analysis Cost Assessment Measuring the Value of Resources Used Monitoring Procedures, Processes, and Procedure - Process Relationships Evaluating Outcomes Effectiveness and Benefits Describing and Improving Cost - Procedure - Process - Outcome Relationships

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2009

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the a... more This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit:

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2017

The conclusion of this special issue on Social Return On Investment (SROI) begins with a summary ... more The conclusion of this special issue on Social Return On Investment (SROI) begins with a summary of both advantages and problems of SROI, many of which were identified in preceding articles. We also offer potential solutions for some of these problems that can be derived from standard evaluation practices and that are becoming expected in SROIs that follow guidances from international SROI networks. A remaining concern about SROI is that we do not yet know if SROI itself adds sufficient benefit to programs to justify its cost. Two frameworks for this proposed metaevaluation of SROI are suggested, the first comparing benefits to costs summatively (the resource → outcome model). The second framework evaluates costs and benefits according to how much they contribute to or are caused by the different activities of SROI. This resource → activity → outcome model could enable outcomes of SROI to be maximized within resource constraints (such as budget and time limits) on SROI. Alternatively, with the information from this model could help minimize the costs of achieving a specific level of return on investment from conducting SROI. Possible problems with this metaevaluation of SROI are discussed. keywords: social return on investment; SROI; metaevaluation; cost-inclusive evaluation; resource-activity-process-outcome analysis model Advantages of SROI Versus Other Evaluation Methods SROI is likely to have both positive and negative outcomes when it is used: both can be more extreme than other forms of evaluation that consider neither the monetary value of the results of an intervention, nor the monetary value of the resources consumed to provide that intervention. Table 1 summarizes some of the more prominent advantages, i.e., positive outcomes, that SROI seems likely to achieve, relative to other evaluation practices, as detailed in articles of this special issue. Of course, SROI stands apart from most other methods of evaluation in that it collects and analyzes information about the social value of resources consumed by programs. Most evaluations simply do