The Use of a Participatory Approach to Develop a Framework for Assessing Quality of Care in Children’s Mental Health Services

The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for assessing the quality of children’s mental health services that reflects the primary concerns and perspectives of diverse stakeholders. A participatory research approach was adopted in order to incorporate caregivers of children with mental he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Administration and policy in mental health and mental health services research 2013-07, Vol.40 (4), p.286-299
Main Authors: Vargo, Amy C., Sharrock, Patty J., Johnson, Melissa H., Armstrong, Mary I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caregivers
Children & youth
Clinical Psychology
Community
Community-Based Participatory Research
Families & family life
Health Administration
Health Informatics
Health services
Humans
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental health care
Mental Health Services - standards
Original Article
Participation
Participatory research
Pediatrics
Psychiatry
Public Health
Quality Assurance, Health Care - methods
Quality Indicators, Health Care
Stakeholders
United States
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for assessing the quality of children’s mental health services that reflects the primary concerns and perspectives of diverse stakeholders. A participatory research approach was adopted in order to incorporate caregivers of children with mental health problems, mental health service providers, and managed care administrators in identifying and developing quality of care indicators and methods for assessment. This research occurred in three phases that moved from very qualitative and exploratory to more quantitative as we sought to refine and verify the resulting Quality of Care Framework. We found that the use of a participatory approach was beneficial in ensuring the validity of research tools and utility of the framework, and also greatly increased the sense of ownership of research findings among participants.
ISSN:0894-587X
1573-3289
DOI:10.1007/s10488-012-0419-7