Mental health program monitoring: towards simplifying a complex task.
Finding measures that can assess areas of expected program impact, provide valid results, and be easily integrated into routine program practices is a significant challenge. This paper is intended to assist program staff by providing an accessible inventory of measures appropriate for routine monitoring of the status and outcome of individuals using mental health outpatient and community programs. The inventory is not exhaustive, but rather includes examples of solid measures for assessing outcomes in four key domains--symptoms, functioning, quality of life, and satisfaction. These can provide a core of information, to which measurement of more in-depth issues can be added to address specific concerns.
Durbin
Janet
J
Health Systems Research & Consulting Unit, Centre For Addiction & Mental Health, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario. Janet_Durbin@camb.net
Prendergast
Peter
P
Dewa
Carolyn S
CS
Rush
Brian
B
Cooke
Robert G
RG
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D002170:Canada; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome