Use of the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) as an outcome measure in clinical settings.
This article discusses how the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) can be used as an outcome measure in clinical settings. Outcome data from two clinical samples are provided: a small community mental health center located in Michigan and a large referred sample from the Fort Bragg Evaluation Project. Outcome indicators for assessing change over time included overall level of dysfunction, percentage of respondents with severe impairment, mean total score, mean scores for individual CAFAS subscales, and change in total score at the client level. Implications of the findings were discussed from several perspectives: improving services to individual clients, developing databases at the local level that can be used for the agency's continuing self-scrutiny, and pooling databases across sites that can be used to study broader issues within a managed care environment.
Department of Psychology, Applied Research Unit, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti 48197, USA.
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Hodges
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Wong
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Latessa
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003155:Community Mental Health Centers / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors