Training in routine mental health outcome assessment: the Victorian experience

The routine assessment of client outcomes was set as an objective in the Australian National Mental Health Policy in 1992. Victoria was the first jurisdiction to begin the implementation. This paper reports this process, and describes the background to outcome measurement in mental health, assembly of the implementation team, certain key concepts, development of the training materials, the approach to training, and a brief description of the evaluation. We end with a number of observations and recommendations that arose out of the project.