Quality assurance activities in community mental health centers: changes over time

How have Quality Assurance (QA) Programs fared over time in community mental health centers (pre and postlegislative mandates) and what has their impact on CMHC's been? These are the essential questions which are the subject of this paper that discusses surveys of QA activities in CMHC's conducted in 1977 by the Council on Research and Evaluation of NCCMHC and in 1983 by the author. The data from the survey revealed that despite the removal of mandates, the last years have been very productive for QA systems. QA growth in most areas of CMHC services has occurred, systems have grown more sophisticated and extensive and appear to be having a significant impact on centers. The paper suggests that the future QA systems looks promising but that further research is necessary.