title: Assessing consumer program needs: advantages of a brief unstructured format.
abstract: To be empowered, consumers must provide feedback on services so that modifications can be made. The most frequently used method to attain such information is consumer satisfaction measures. However, often the measures are not useful because they have a strong positive response bias or because they do not contain items that reflect consumer needs. An alternative brief unstructured assessment was piloted with individuals served by four Community Treatment Teams in Delaware. The high number of needs expressed suggests that further work should be done in this area.
authors.affiliation: Matrix Research Institute, USA. Blankertz@aol.com
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blankertz
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hazem
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003691:Delaware; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011209:Power, Psychological