Community professionals' compliance with consultants' recommendations for developmentally disabled children

Much of the responsibility for managing children with developmental disabilities lies with professionals working in community services. In many instances advice and consultation for these frontline professionals is available from a regional consultation facility. The purpose of this study was to prospectively examine the relationship between community professional clients' perceptions of the quality of the consultations received and their subsequent compliance with the recommendations made to them for the management of children in their care. Two hundred and ninety-nine consultation recommendations were followed: 2 weeks after the advice had been provided, clients completed a general satisfaction questionnaire and a client perceptions questionnaire. Two months later, compliance with the recommendation was determined by a validated self-report questionnaire. Overall, compliance was good for 73% of the recommendations. Negative client perceptions regarding several aspects of the consultants' skills in conducting the consultation were strongly associated with subsequent noncompliance. The findings suggest that community professional compliance may be enhanced by attention to improving the process of consultation.