Quality indicators of children's mental health services: Do they predict improved client outcomes?

Demonstrations of high-quality services have surpassed cost control as the primary task of health care. In this study we evaluated the relationship be tween several traditionally accepted standards of quality of children's men tal health care and client mental health outcomes. Three customary performa nce guidelines (therapeutic relationship, satisfaction, and parent involvem ent) that are believed to be indicators of quality care were tested for the ir ability to account for improvement of mental health outcomes among adole scent clients. In addition, we examined service utilization to determine wh ether it represents an intermediate outcome of the treatment process. The r esults showed statistically significant, yet weak and inconsistent, relatio nships between these commonly accepted measures of quality and client outco mes among adolescents receiving outpatient treatment. We did not find servi ce utilization to be a mediator. Limitations of the study and implications of the results are discussed.