The Bristol Observatory (TBO) provides research and program evaluation services to individual states, research and non-profit advocacy organizations. We also help our clients to identify and gain access to data sets that are relevant to their research/evaluation concerns, including gaining IRB (Institutional Review Board) human subjects’ research approval. Many of these projects include multi-year longitudinal analyses. To date, TBO has analyzed and reported data from the District of Columbia and seventeen states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.  A summary of work for each state and a collection of selected reports can be accessed using the map below.

 

At the state level, much of TBO’s work involves statewide analysis of cross sector caseload overlap for purposes of measuring access to care and treatment outcomes. Service sectors frequently include community-based and institutional mental health and substance abuse services, criminal justice involvement, health care, and homeless services. Our reports always include detailed demographic analyses (age, gender and race/ethnicity) and routinely include regional comparisons within states as well as comparisons to other states when data are available. 

 

TBO also provides data analytical services to other research organizations and advocacy groups. TBO has collaborated with researchers at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) on studies that focused on housing and homelessness and criminal justice involvement among mental health service recipients in Colorado. TBO’s collaboration with the Research Institute of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NRI) included two multistate projects. One project involved the determination of the rates at which individuals discharged from state hospitals in eight states accessed Section 8 housing after discharge.  Another project included the measurement of public mental health utilization rates by individuals with histories of trauma.

 

Currently, TBO is working with advocacy groups in two states to design program evaluation studies based on analysis of administrative data from several different state agencies.  One project is designed to provide measures of community mental health program performance.  The other state project is being designed to measure access to public mental health services for a specified high risk population.

 

Click on a state below for a summary of work and a selected collection of reports.