Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Counselling in Health Care »

When resources in health care are scarce, decisions about the value of counseling have to be taken in a very competitive economic arena. The authors of Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Counselling in Health Care argue that a knowledge and understanding of the basic theory of an economic evaluation is an essential part of establishing the efficacy of counseling. Written jointly by an experienced counselor and an economist, the book is intended to help counselors and service providers carry out simple cost-effectiveness analyses in their own settings, with a good understanding of the purposes, methods and limitations of the tools they are using.

Part One provides a general introduction to economic evaluations of counseling and related psychological interventions. Part Two concentrates on the practical use of one type of economic evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), providing the reader with worked examples of how it can be applied in different contexts such as the workplace, primary health care and an educational institution.