Evaluation capacity building in an integrative, preventive stress and anger management workshop

The need for evaluation capacity building (ECB) in integrative medicine is apparent in light of the proliferation of newly developed, yet untested programs.  Program directors and managers need data for ongoing decision-making about program expansion, remission, and replication.  The Resilience Education Stress and Anger Management Workshop is a preventive, two-day skills-building and psycho-educational class with an experiential mind-body component.  Program staff were eager and receptive for guidance on how to implement a data collection system to measure both short-term and medium-term impacts on stress and anger.  ECB activities began with collaboratively clarifying the program’s goals, objectives, activities, and expected outcomes.  Other ECB activities included refining outcome measures, implementing an electronic data collection system, and adding a follow-up assessment time point. The study utilized Preskill and Boyle’s multi-disciplinary model for capacity building as a guiding framework because it offers evaluation activities that can be tailored and sustained by programs.  The findings from this study will be useful for anyone looking to initiate or further develop their program’s evaluation systems.