Synthetic Estimation Of The Distribution Of Mentally-disabled Adults For Allocations To Ohio-mental-health-board Areas
Creator
Jarjoura D; McCord G; Holzer C E; Champney T F
Publisher
Evaluation and Program Planning
Date
1993
1993-10
Description
Various indirect forms of evidence are provided for the accuracy of synthetic estimation of the distribution of severely mentally disabled (SMD) adults across Ohio's mental health board areas. The board areas are public mental health jurisdictions which are allocated state funds to serve the needs of SMD adults. Equitable allocation of funds to these areas depends on accurate estimation of the distribution of SMD adults across the areas. The synthetic estimation method involved two steps. (a) ECA-based prevalences of SMD adults by demographic profiles were obtained, (b) prevalences were applied to a board area's demographic mix to yield the estimated SMD count for that area. The main indirect evidence of accuracy showed that the synthetically-estimated percentages across areas agreed closely with the actual percentages of SMD adults enrolled in federal programs. Statistical characteristics of various percentage estimators indicated that reasonably accurate estimation and allocation is not difficult to attain.