PARENTS PERSPECTIVES ON QUALITY IN FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAMS

Support services for families who have a member with developmental dis abilities are a growing component of many state mental health systems. Family empowerment is a key principle of these programs but parents a nd the staff who work with them are often challenged in their efforts to hate parents participate in policy development, program management, and evaluation of programs. The use of nominal group techniques is de scribed as a means of identifying factors parents believe characterize quality family support programs. Parents' identified factors are then compared with factors from a theoretical framework for quality. Paren ts stressed access to information, adherence to empowerment philosophy , and the importance of interpersonal relationships with staff. Parent s placed less emphasis on factors generally found in accreditation cri teria.