The EDEN Project

Acronym: The EDEN Project

Full Title: Evaluating the development and impact of Early Intervention Services in the West Midlands

Sample Size: 300

Inclusion criteria: All new inceptees into the Early Intervention Service (EIS) who give informed consent to participate.

Exclusion criteria: All new inceptees into the EIS who are felt by the case workers to be unable to give informed consent because of learning disabilities or because recruitment might negatively affect the process of engagement.

No-one will be approached to discuss recruitment until the case worker feels this is appropriate.

Lay Description: The EDEN study aims to describe EIS development, explore the relationship between different EIS configurations and outcomes and to see how closely different EIS are following the Department of Health guidelines in this area of health care.

The three-year study, which uses a case study approach involving both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, started in July 2003. Each of the 14 EIS across the West Midlands have participated in the study. We have interviewed team leads and team members every 6 months and the four sets of case study interviews have now been completed. We continue to interview service users and carers and also team leads of voluntary and community sector services allied to EIS.

Contact  

Institution: University of Birmingham (http://www.bham.ac.uk/)
Funding Body: The NHS Service Delivery & Organisation R&D Programme (http://www.sdo.lshtm.ac.uk)
Chief Investigator: Dr Helen Lester