The name of John Conolly, writes his obituarist in the Journal of Mental Science [12 (1866): 146] “liveth for ever more.” As a reformer he will go down in history as one of the most distinguished men of his age, to be mentioned in the same breath, say, as John Howard, Thomas Clarkson and Lord Shaftesbury. As a psychiatrist he will be identified for all time with the non-restraint system after its translation from France to England. “There is no asylum in the world,” he opined, “in which all mechanical restraints may not be abolished not only with safety, but with incalculable advantage.”

Mental health care evaluation is a priority area as mental health care services are changing rapidly, more than are most other medical services. Budgets are finite, and there is concern for value for money in meeting the needs of patients and families. A one-day workshop brought together leading figures in the USA and Europe to discuss how a unit and consortium might be established to give cohesion and catalyse evaluative research in this fragmented field in the UK. Sound scientific data are available which have not yet been widely disseminated or used in policy making. There are rich opportunities for cross-national projects. The USA has intriguing innovations in evaluative research in mental health, some on a large scale, and these are relevant to the UK.