Hello EIDM colleagues,
A challenge we rarely discuss openly:
A challenge we rarely discuss openly:In mental health and psychosocial programs, the most meaningful outcomes โ restored functioning, renewed hope, reduced internalized stigma โ are often invisible for 3-6 months. They don't show up in our quarterly dashboards.
Yet funders and systems ask for "evidence of impact" in 30-60 days.
So what do we do in the meantime?
At community level, we see practitioners using proxy evidence: attendance consistency, peer support initiation, family re-engagement, sleep routines returning. These are not in standard logframes, but they predict recovery.
My question to this community:
1. What proxy indicators have you found legitimate to count as early evidence of mental health progress?
2. How do we defend those proxies as rigorous evidence, not just anecdotes, to decision-makers?
3. When should we say "the evidence is not yet observable" and still justify continuing?
I believe EIDM in mental health needs a conversation about interim evidence โ what we count while we wait for the real change.
Curious to learn how others in this group of 358 members are navigating this.
Looking forward to your thoughts.โ Charles
