Knowledge is managers' principal asset and knowledge building is managers' primary work. This qualitative study explores knowledge building by directors of children's community-based mental health services in Kansas. Of the state's 27 directors, 25 completed a survey about knowledge building, in their preference of online or telephone format. Fourteen participants took part either in preliminary interviews for study development, or in follow-up interviews for further detail and member checking. Study findings indicate that with requisite resources, directors inform their decision making with streams of information, which they manage and generate to build organizational knowledge and value for local practice effectiveness.

This study identified statewide variation in implementation of wraparound for children on the severe emotional disturbance (SED) Waiver in Kansas. SED Waivers allow Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) to offer an array of community-based services to high risk youth. Qualitative methods, including interviews, reviews of charts and billing records, and a survey, were employed. Stratified random sampling was used to select seven CMHCs, and random sampling was used to select individual cases for interviews. Although CMHCs shared similar wraparound philosophy and service initiation processes, each developed their own localized wraparound model within the confines of Medicaid eligibility and documentation rules. Eight models for wraparound team composition were identified. Findings demonstrate implementation of wraparound with fidelity to a central model is difficult on a large scale. The balance of standardized wraparound practices, localized innovations, and agency compliance with Medicaid is essential for optimizing children's mental health services.

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The State of Kansas community mental health system uses an automated information management system for state and federal accountability and for local quality improvement. Researchers interviewed 25 of the state's 28 directors of children's communitybased mental health services to learn about the automated system's local applications. Two-thirds of the directors used the automated system for either programmatic decision making or staff supervision, when they were supported by time and personnel for looking at data and an organizational culture of trust in data-informed decisions. Directors additionally wanted technology that allows local access to their data.KEYWORDS automated information management system, community mental health, data utilization, decision making, organizational culture Outcome evaluation is central to social work's mission and ethics (Bloom

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