Current community mental health center operations: entrepreneurship or business as usual?

Now that previous funding levels are no longer guaranteed to community mental health centers, implementing cost effective and innovative mental health programs is increasingly important. This paper reports on a 1987 study of 69 mental health center directors from 27 states. The results indicate that while familiar with prescriptions for organizational innovation and entrepreneurship, mental health center directors are concentrating more on control and efficiency than on supporting a structure and atmosphere conducive to creative thinking and innovation. Specifically, the structure of work units, work assignments, and staff's lack of participation in decision making may inhibit innovation.