The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the challenges and learnings of evaluating a public mental health programme with older people: Standing Together, which delivered weekly facilitated self-help groups for older people in extra care housing. Following evaluation, a list of practical recommendations was developed to inform future evaluations of similar programmes.
This paper resulted from our reflections as evaluators or practitioners on Standing Together. The evaluation followed a mixed-methods design. It reflects on findings from the Standing Together evaluation, which employed quantitative and qualitative research methods to determine the project’s impact on key outcome areas. Quantitative questionnaires were completed by tenants at baseline and towards the end of the project. Focus groups were held with tenants and interviews were undertaken with multiple stakeholders.
There were challenges in evaluating Standing Together that were unique to the older population group. Recommendations cover the full spectrum of the role of practitioners, evaluators, setting and methodology. Co-production was found to be an overarching theme linking together the recommendations, and most of the challenges encountered can, in principle, be alleviated with greater focus on co-production during the evaluation design stage.
The recommendations in the paper have practical relevance to those involved in evaluations of public health programmes or interventions. Incorporating these recommendations when conducting similar evaluations with older populations in housing settings will ensure more accurate reporting of outcomes.
