title: Parents' perspectives on quality in family support programs.
abstract: Support services for families who have a member with developmental disabilities are a growing component of many state mental health systems. Family empowerment is a key principle of these programs, but parents and the staff who work with them are often challenged in their efforts to have parents participate in policy development, program management, and evaluation of programs. The use of nominal group techniques is described as a means of identifying factors parents believe characterize quality family support programs. Parents' identified factors are then compared with factors from a theoretical framework for quality. Parents stressed access to information, adherence to empowerment philosophy, and the importance of interpersonal relationships with staff. Parents placed less emphasis on factors generally found in accreditation criteria.
authors.affiliation: Michigan Department of Mental Health, Lansing 48913, USA.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Herman
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Marcenko
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Hazel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000628:therapy*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008824:Michigan; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011050:Policy Making; D011209:Power, Psychological; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012944:Social Support