title: Challenges and opportunities in measuring the quality of mental health care.
abstract: The purpose of our paper is to delineate the barriers to mental health quality measurement, and to identify strategies to enhance the development and use of quality measures by mental health providers, programs, payers, and other stakeholders in the service of improving outcomes for people with mental health and substance use disorders. Key reasons for the lag in mental health performance measurement include lack of sufficient evidence regarding appropriate mental health care, poorly defined quality measures, limited descriptions of mental health services from existing clinical data, and lack of linked electronic health information. We discuss strategies for overcoming these barriers that are being implemented in several countries, including the need to have quality improvement as part of standard clinical training curricula, refinement of technologies to promote adequate data capture of mental health services, use of incentives to promote provider accountability for improving care, and the need for mental health researchers to improve the evidence base for mental health treatment.
authors.affiliation: VA Ann Arbor National Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA. amykilbo@umich.edu
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kilbourne
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Keyser
authors.forename: Harold Alan
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Pincus
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D058996:Quality Improvement; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States