Evaluating community awareness of a community mental health center

To assess community awareness of a community mental health center, a telephone survey was conducted, using a random stratified sample. In order to provide comparative analyses, two other mental health agencies were included in the study. Five specific issues were addressed: (a) the percentage of the population that was aware of the agencies, (b) inter-agency comparisons, (c) heterogeneity of awareness levels among geographic areas, (d) the relative merit of different sources of information, and (e) the relationship between awareness and demographic factors. The results indicated relatively high levels of awareness for the three agencies (X = 57%). There were, however, significant differences in awareness levels between agencies and between geographic areas. The source of information cited most often by respondents was the newspaper; in addition, there was an effect for the primary agency's storefront office. Sex, education, and family size had significant but weak correlations with the amount of accurate information a respondent possessed. The results provided substantive answers to the agency's concerns as well as methodological guidelines for future evaluations of community awareness.