Consumer satisfaction of parents and their children with child/adolescent mental health services

The satisfaction of parents/guardians and their children who received services at 22 community mental health agencies in Illinois was assessed using standardized measures and procedures. The primary goal of the project was to develop a model of presenting consumer satisfaction data to stakeholders in a way that would provide meaningful bases of comparison and provide information for program improvement. A secondary goal of the project was to conduct exploratory analyses to aid in building theory about the relationship between parental/youth consumer satisfaction and other variables. Statewide analyses indicated that youths' satisfaction was significantly less than that of their parents. According to CHAID segmentation analyses, the best predictor of parents' satisfaction was their rating of the severity of their child's problem. The best predictor of youths' satisfaction was the type of school attended, though problem severity and agency location (e.g. suburban, urban, or rural) also figured prominently in CHAID's prediction model.