Chapter 2 Methods 3
Figure 2.1 Search structure
accessed by the targeted group by increasing or
improving co-ordination/integration
For a paper to be included in the systematic map,
it should not have been excludable under any of
the criteria given below.
Exclusion criteria
1. The study was published before 1993.
2. The study was NOT published in English.
3. The ‘evidence’ is NOT a report of an evaluation
of an intervention with data or outcomes (of any
kind).
4. The intervention is NOT the delivery/co-
ordination/integration of multiple services and
or agencies. The intervention is not intended
to change the way that multiple services are
delivered to or accessed by the targeted group.
5. The subjects of the intervention are NOT
Service providers or services that are targeted
specifically or have the aim of providing services
to Target group (See HCHHHU definition); OR
The subjects of the intervention are NOT HCHH
Household units in which members are subject
to multiple forms of intervention to address
various problems which might include more
than one of the following: antisocial behaviour;
offending; addiction problems; child-welfare
problems; lack of education/employment; poor
health; OR
The subjects of the intervention are NOT
Communities or localities in which HCHH
household units are present.
6. The study must not report on an evaluation of
a project aimed at preventing children from
developing problems of any kind even if targeted
at so called ‘high risk’ families and involving co-
ordination/integration of services. (Early years
education projects and universal school-based
prevention projects would come under this
heading)
Definitions
The following definitions were employed:
High Cost High Harm Household Units (HCHHHU):
These are taken to be household ‘units’ in which
members are subject to (and have been, with
little success, for more than one generation)
multiple forms of intervention to address multiple
problems, which might include more than one of
the following: antisocial behaviour; offending;
addiction problems; child-welfare problems; lack
of education/employment; poor health.
Interventions: In this context ‘interventions’ refers
to initiatives or programmes which aim to redesign,
reconfigure, co-ordinate, or integrate (referred
to from hereon as co-ordinate) the delivery of
services to HCHHHU.
Outcomes: Outcomes will follow from the
interventions considered. The specific outcome
of interest is ‘breaking the cycle of high cost high
harm’. Such a concept is difficult to operationalise
and, even if possible to operationalise, difficult to
measure. It was therefore considered likely that
outputs (i.e. improvements in service delivery)
and/or specific outcomes, such as increased
attendance at school, would be the major
outcomes included in the review.
2.4.2 Identification of potential studies:
searching and screening
The exclusion and inclusion criteria were applied
to the papers identified using the search strategy.