QUALITY ASSURANCE IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT -PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY - GOALS AND RELATED PROBLEMS

Quality assurance in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy : Goals and related problems. The goals of quality assurance in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy and related problems are r eviewed. Three dimensions of quality assurance are differentiated: the substantive aspect (quality of the treatment process and results, qua lity of structural aspects of treatment facility) the area (diagnosis, therapy, staff training) and the tasks to be accomplished in the proc ess of quality assurance (development of standards, assessment of the current situation, comparison of current situation with standards, pla nning and implementation of changes). Several important problems relat ed to quality assurance are outlined and the most urgent tasks discuss ed in detail (development of quality standards and assessment of the c urrent situation). It is proposed that quality assurance documentation is divided into four parts: documentation of structural characteristi cs of facility, basic documentation about patient, documentation of di agnostic and treatment services provided, and documentation of evaluat ion of services provided. An example of a therapy evaluation method (Q uestionnaire for Therapy Evaluation, QTE) is described.