Monitoring outcomes of services to children and youths with severe emotional disorders: an economical follow-up procedure for mental health and child care agencies.

Human services have been slow to develop and implement procedures for measuring the outcomes they are committed to achieve with clients. This is as true in child mental health and child care services as in other services. A method is described for getting follow-up data on youngsters with severe maladjustment (emotional disturbance, behavior disorder) at modest cost, yet high relevance. The method is part of the program monitoring and evaluation conducted routinely by the Pressley Ridge Schools and involves telephone interviews with each youngster and others during the summer of the year after the youngster's discharge from treatment. The process yields two kinds of reports with different functions: quantitative summaries of data and individual narratives that sketch each youngster's experience. The method, developed over eight years, has had favorable effects on the agency's services.