Utilization of internal evaluation results by community mental health organizations: Credibility in different forms

• Few case studies exist of use for evaluations by internal program/management staff.
• We examined internal evaluation use by 19 community mental health organizations in Canada.
• Internal evaluators established credibility differently than external evaluators.
• Credibility was linked to trust, information relevance and belief confirmation.
• Credibility defined as objectivity was of lesser concern.

Internal evaluations are numerous but the literature is largely focused on external evaluations. There have been few explorations of the factors affecting the use of findings from internal evaluations that are carried out by program staff in community organizations. This study examined the instrumental use of internal evaluation findings within 19 community mental health organizations in Ontario, Canada. All but one respondent reported instrumental use in their organization, using the evaluation findings to make program-related decisions. For these non-controversial programs, qualities such as the ability of internal evaluators to identify relevant information, their role/expertise within the organization and the consistency of evaluation findings with current understanding appeared to influence use more strongly than evaluator objectivity.