Qualitative assessment of mental health service satisfaction: strengths and limitations of a self-administered procedure.

A qualitative procedure based on self-administered open-ended questions was assessed in three psychiatric outpatient clinics in Montreal. Acceptability to clients, mode of administration and convergent validity were evaluated. Comparison with findings from personal interviews demonstrates a lower frequency in responses but similar patterns in sources of satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Scores generated by quantification of responses to one of the open-ended questions presented a significant correlation with a standardized questionnaire (OQOS) administered to 242 psychiatric outpatients. Findings suggest that a self-administered procedure based on open-ended questions could be practical and useful for both formative evaluation and monitoring in environments with limited resources.