Intake follow-up of "no service" cases.
At The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, an attempt was made to bypass long pre-assessment waiting lists by referring an increasing number of patients to local community resources at the point of the initial intake call. During the pilot study, we contacted 40 families who had been redirected along these lines between January and June 1979. We found that 31 (78%) families had followed our recommendation and most were satisfied with the treatment they were receiving. This suggests that "re-referral" upon intake can often be a highly effective and useful service when provided by a central resource and consultation centre. A further systematic follow-up of all applications to children's mental health clinics, including a careful appraisal of no-show cases (families who are accepted so that we can tailor our services to the specific child psychiatry needs of our varied clientel.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D012017:Referral and Consultation