Quality assurance: A challenge for community mental health centers.

Abstract

This article critically reviews the quality assurance requirements that are currently being applied to-community mental health centers. These requirements were initially developed from an inpatient perspective. Application to an outpatient mental health area presents many problems, not the least of which is that no generally accepted standards exist for mental health care. Several suggestions are made regarding how a center might develop some quality assurance procedures, particularly utilization and peer review committees. Quality assurance requirements represent an important challenge for the future.

Problems, protests, and proposals.

“…The process seems to work, notwithstanding the fact that psychologists know neither what types of data, for what problems, collected under what conditions will identify appropriate actions to be taken nor which ones enhance health status (Brook, Kamberg, & Lohr, 1982). Drude and Nelson (1982) stated that there are no generally accepted standards for mental health care, especially outpatient services. Psychologists know that patients who receive good quality treatment should be better off than those who do not, but that factors beyond the clinician's control may neutralize or enhance the treatment effect.…”