Management variables as predictors of service utilization by the elderly in mental health

The problem of underservice to the elderly in mental health settings has been conceptionalized in terms of client variables, therapist variables, and systems variables. This investigation of management variables as a type of system level variable reveals that number of staff assigned to work with the elderly is strongly related to outpatient service use and that number of elders on the advisory board is an inverse predictor of inpatient use. It is recommended that future work on the underservice problem focus on system level analysis and intervention.