I am currently working on a service evaluation proposal as part of a new psychology groups pathway in a perinatal psychology service. The groups pathway involves patients attending a number of different groups depending on their psychological needs. These groups include topics such as mindfulness, intrusive thoughts, low mood, anxiety etc. We are unaware of this type of pathway ever being used in a perinatal service before, so we are new to this particular type of service evaluation.

We are currently unsure as to whether MANOVA or T Tests would be more suitable for this evaluation. Usually we would use MANOVA to evaluate groups within the service, however we are not sure that it will be appropriate for this new pathway for the following reasons: not all patients will complete all groups; patients will be completing different measures, which do not correlate, depending on group attendance (for example one may complete PCL-5 and one may complete OCI); patients will be completing a different number of groups in addition to different combinations.

We considered multiple t tests to account for each group, but this also doesn't really evaluate the pathway as a whole, only the effectiveness of the individual groups.

Please let me know what you would choose for this particular study! Happy to provide more information if required.