A consumer‐oriented program review process for mental health care

Abstract

This chapter describes an approach developed in San Francisco to contribute to the goal of developing consumer-guided mental health services. This approach uses existing quality assurance procedures to achieve widespread integration of mental health service consumers and other community members in the review of clinical programs. Community volunteers not only participate in site visits to clinical programs but have specific responsibility for interviewing program clients, to generate consumer satisfaction data that can be used in evaluation of clinical services. This initiative builds on a long history of community participation in program reviews in San Francisco. It represents a collaborative effort of community members and mu1 tidisciplinary quality assurance staff teams, including registered nurses. The quality assurance program is under the supervision of a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist.Background