Measuring consumer satisfaction in a mental health center.

In this age of consumerism, the degree of patient satisfaction should be considered when evaluating mental health services, according to the authors. They attempted to measure consumer satisfaction of mental health center patients by correlating it with various demographic and therapeutic parameters such as length of treatment, age, socioeconomic status, and previous expectations. One surprising finding was that patients treated by the approach least popular with the therapists, extended intake, rated the services higher than those treated by approaches considered more acceptable.