Tracking the influence of mental health treatment: The development of the youth outcome questionnaire

The demand that providers of mental health services be accountable for the services they provide has highlighted the importance of identifying and tracking the relationship between service, cost, and outcome in the current context of managed behavioural. health care. In order to meet this demand, it is imperative that clinicians, researchers, and administrators have reliable and valid measures with which to document and track treatment outcomes. In the arena of child and adolescent care, there is a gap between traditional diagnostic measures and measures specifically designed to track outcomes. This study reports the comprehensive development and testing of a new outcome measure, the Youth Outcome Questionnaire, designed cooperatively by clinicians, researchers, and managed care administrators in order to meet the needs of all three. Multiple clinical samples and normative groups were assessed and results suggest that the instrument meets recommended standards of reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. The process of development and testing serve as an illustration of the types of issues which must be addressed by those charged with the responsibility for documenting treatment outcomes. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.