This cost-benefit analysis
compared the costs of implementing the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a
preventive intervention for divorced families to monetary benefits saved in
mental healthcare service use and criminal justice system costs.
NBP was
delivered when the offspring were 9-12 years old. Benefits were assessed 15
years later when the offspring were young adults (ages 24-27). This study
estimated the costs of delivering two versions of NBP, a single-component
parenting-after-divorce program (Mother Program, MP) and a two-component
parenting-after-divorce and child-coping program (Mother-Plus-Child Program,
MPCP), to costs of a literature control (LC).
Long-term monetary benefits were
determined from actual expenditures from past-year mental healthcare service
use for mothers and their young adult (YA) offspring and criminal justice
system involvement for YAs. Data were gathered from 202 YAs and 194 mothers
(75.4 % of families randomly assigned to condition).
The benefits, as assessed
in the 15th year after program completion, were $1630/family (discounted
benefits $1077/family). These 1-year benefits, based on conservative
assumptions, more than paid for the cost of MP and covered the majority of the
cost of MPCP.
Because the effects of MP versus MPCP on mental health and
substance use problems have not been significantly different at short-term or
long-term follow-up assessments, program managers would likely choose the
lower-cost option.
Given that this evaluation only calculated economic benefit
at year 15 and not the previous 14 (nor future years), these findings suggest
that, from a societal perspective, NBP more than pays for itself in future
benefits.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/63AEXm
By: Herman PM1, Mahrer NE, Wolchik SA, Porter MM, Jones S, Sandler IN.
1RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
Prev Sci. 2015
May;16(4):586-96. doi: 10.1007/s11121-014-0527-6.
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