IMPROVING ACCOUNTABILITY IN A SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN CHILDRENS MENTAL-HEALTH

A Vermont legislator who served on the House Appropriations Committee once remarked, "If human service agencies were forced to compete in the private sector, most of them would go out of business in less than a year - their product is people and they have no idea what happens to them after they are served." This article begins with a discussion of the increasing concern for public agency accountability and some of the limitations of more traditional program evaluation methods for meeting this need. Three methods are described that have been utilized to monitor the progress of children receiving services within a public service delivery system. The methods include the measurement of daily adjustment, residential and educational service tracking and an approach for integrating and displaying individual case information related to child behavior, life and family events, services received, and service costs. A description and illustration of each method is followed by a brief discussion of issues related to implementation and utilization. Future developments, which include methods to track units of service and youth and parent satisfaction, are also discussed.